One Hundred Days of Nejiten
by SilverSalient
Summary: 100 theme challenge, Nejiten-centric. Rated M for some chapters, daily submissions! Fluff, sexiness, you name it, we've got it. Collection of (sometimes connected) one shots!
1. 100 - Relaxation

Casually been like four years since I posted last...

I'm paying homage to my personal favorite pairing (let's not even get started on his death, okay? I will be 80 and still be salty about it).

100 days of Nejiten, daily shorts from yours truly! Rated M for the future. Exploring tons of mini plots as well as general ridiculous fluffiness. So brace yourselves!

R&R!

 **Day One Hundred** – 12 November 2017

 **Prompt** – Relaxation

 **Summary** – Everyone's tired and maybe it's the exhaustion that causes the shift. Whatever happens, there's no taking it back.

 **Notes** – Set after the Chunin Exams, before the Sasuke Retrieval Arc. I always imagined the characters to be 15 or 16 at this time because it's a little strange to be sending such young kids into certain death, isn't it? At that age, it's a little more realistic to me. They're a little more grown up than 12 or 13.

 **Word Count** – 1326

* * *

 **Relaxation**

He lived for days like this.

Copper and red leaves above their heads rustled ever so slightly in the breeze, shifting the lazy rays of sunshine which filtered down from above. Light and shadow danced across her skin where she lay in the grass, breathing even and deep, sleeping after training with him.

They'd been on missions non-stop for the last three weeks, and even though they were exhausted and sore they met on the training grounds the next morning, as was their custom. Initially Lee and Gai Sensei had also been there, but when their two teammates had shown signs of fatigue much earlier than usual, they'd taken off in a wild frenzy of green spandex to do who knows what. Probably racing each other around the village on their hands, no doubt.

That left him and Tenten here by themselves. She had summoned hot tea for two from one of her scrolls and – wordlessly – they watched the forest in quiet companionship. The gentle white noise of the forest soon lulled them into a comforting stupor, and he hadn't objected when she'd asked if she could sleep. He would watch over her, always.

He didn't blame her for taking a nap here; the village was abuzz as they prepared for one of many fall festivals. Even if one locked their doors and windows it would be difficult to find rest there today. The gentle breeze and quiet chirping of birds in the trees was much more welcome to both.

He turned on his side and rested on his elbow as he watched her, a gentle smile slowly making its way across his lips. She looked much different when she was asleep, younger and more innocent. He would never dare look at her like this when she was awake, so openly. He considered it to be rather brazen on his part, but as long as she stayed asleep he was safe.

A more forceful gust of wind pulled several maple leaves off of the branches overhead and they drifted downwards in a lilting dance, flashing red and brown as they flipped and turned. They settled gently on the grass around them. One settled on his shoulder and another perched in her hair, softly brushing her cheek as it did so.

He mildly envied the leaf, how it could openly touch her just as he wished to. Oh how he wished…

His fingers plucked at strands of grass next to his body, mind a tangle of thoughts. She always did this to him, confused him and tossed his calm, ordered inner mind into chaos. He thought he was always in control of himself, mind and body, but she disrupted that control nearly every time she touched him or spoke to him or even _looked_ at him, at this point. And with every interaction it became harder and harder to deny his affection for her.

Of course, he would never admit it to her. He was too proud, to stubborn, and – though he would never admit it to himself – too afraid of what could happen should he decide to bare his soul to her. What would happen if she rejected him? _Pain and subsequent awkwardness with his team, as a start_ he thought sourly. Could he even risk that sort of disruption when Team Gai already worked flawlessly with each other?

And what did he know of being with a woman? He couldn't begin to think of himself with another person, but hell, what did he know at sixteen? He wasn't so naïve to pretend he knew what he wanted in every facet of his life. She could be all wrong for him in terms of marriage and a future.

But try as he might to push it away, he felt deep within his gut that he knew one thing: he wanted _her_. Not just for her body (he reddened at the thought of them together like _that_ at this point), but for her personality and her charm, her wit and sense of humor, her talent with near every weapon known to a shinobi. So far, she was the only one he considered worthy of his time and efforts, and he'd had plenty of other suitors to choose from.

He sighed and shook his head, brushing away those thoughts. They always seemed to cloud his mind when he should just sit and admire her. So he let those things wash through his being and flow away, as if he were meditating, and focused on her skin and her eyelashes and the way her mouth curled ever so slightly when she was asleep.

The leaf was still in her hair, swaying in the breeze, brushing lightly against her temple. Her brow creased as it touched her, disturbing her sleep. The crease deepened with each pass of the leaf across her skin, and with a start he realized that if the leaf wasn't removed she would wake and he wouldn't be able to watch her any more.

Slowly, as if moving too quickly would startle her out of her slumber, he reached across the distance between them and plucked the offender out of her hair. To his dismay the action brought a section of her locks down onto her cheek, and she huffed in her sleep.

 _Have courage,_ he thought to himself, even as his heart fluttered madly within his chest. The leaf was tossed aside as he bit his lip to silence his quivering breath. _How can one person unsettle me like this?_

Gently, uncertainly, he brought his fingertip along her cheekbone, gathering her hair to push it back into place above her headband. Where their skin met, his tingled as if with an electric shock. Her skin was cool beneath his fingers, soft and smooth and everything he had hoped. She was perfect, and he fervently hoped that maybe he could draw this moment out to savor this new sensation as long as possible.

Just as he was about to tuck the errant strands back into place, her eyelids fluttered, then opened. He froze as his stomach dropped and turned to ice, and he was awash with sudden, inexplicable _fear._ She was going to ask questions, she was going to hate him, she was-

"Neji?" She asked softly, and he swallowed hard even as the sound of his name on her lips thrilled him. A hundred excuses whirled through his mind but none of them came out of his throat. All of them were lies.

She looked into his eyes then, and they seemed to stay like that forever, with him captured within her gaze. She wasn't angry or suspicious, he could tell. Curious, maybe. Confused, definitely. But her calmness soothed his own surge of terror. Neither of them moved, save for him slowly withdrawing his hand from her skin.

He released a breath that he didn't realize he was holding, and it shook ever so slightly on its escape. He had to be honest with her, at least with why he had been touching her.

"I'm sorry," he finally breathed, still holding her gaze. He blinked. "Your hair fell into your eyes and it was disturbing you…"

She reached out then, just as slowly as he had withdrawn, and took his hand in her own, even as her eyelids drooped back downwards. "Don't be sorry," she whispered. "I rather liked it."

She pressed his palm to her cheek then as she lay back down, and he couldn't say anything around the knot of absolute disbelief in his throat. _She liked it?_

He gently began bringing his thumb back and forth over her cheekbone, marveling at the pull of his skin over hers, the warmth he felt behind her ear and down her throat, and she closed her eyes. Her breath washed over his wrist and her lashes brushed the inside of his thumb, and he decided as he smiled to himself that he rather liked it too.

* * *

Again, please R&R! More coming! :)


	2. 99 - Solitude

Like I said, rapid submissions, I have to get it all out on paper so strap in kids!

 **Day Ninety-Nine** – 12 November 2017

 **Prompt** – Solitude

 **Summary** – Everyone dies alone. Unless there's someone to pull you back from the brink.

 **Notes** – Sasuke Retrieval Arc. Neji v. Kidomaru (one of the best Naruto fight scenes ever tbh). Again, they're 15-16…who would kill off a 13 year old kid? Jeez.

 **Word Count** – 782

* * *

 **Solitude**

In the end, everyone dies alone.

 _What a thing to be thinking,_ came the bitter thought, _when you're actually on death's door._

No one really plans to die, do they? Maybe if you're sick or if you wanted to commit suicide, but not someone like Neji Hyuga. The prodigy, the top rookie of his class, arguably the best warrior to emerge from his clan in recent memory, if not ever. He had so much to live for, so much promise.

 _Yet here I am, dying._

There was a certain clarity brought upon one's mind when you realize that you're dying. It's an existential bitch-slap, one that suddenly brings all your successes and failures, hopes and dreams, regrets and losses, to the forefront of your mind. And no one can escape themselves, so neither can you escape those realities. They were undeniable.

He had lost much, it was true. His father, to name one. But he had gained much more. Friends, Lee and Gai, rivals like Naruto, family like Hinata. Yes, he had much more than he had lost. And it was good.

He had been a fool until he clashed with Naruto, but he felt as if he'd redeemed himself for his idiocy in the past. He hoped he did. And he had triumphed countless times. His last victory was testament to his prowess, and he hoped that what he had done could atone for the damage he'd caused in the past.

 _Her lips found the hollow of his throat where they stirred passion and desire and want. His fingers tangled in her hair, and for the first time he felt himself fumbling with his hands. There was so much to touch, to press, to feel, to -_

It was like he'd been shot again. _Tenten._ He would leave her behind. And perhaps that was his biggest regret.

He'd been to reserved, too afraid with her. If he'd spoken up about how he felt earlier maybe they would have had a chance to spend more time together. More time to say how they felt, how he felt about her.

Yes, that was his biggest regret. He wished he'd been more open with her and less afraid. He had never been a coward in battle, so why had he been a coward when it came to his feelings for her?

Outside the protective shell of his mind he felt a tear trickle down his cheek. However he was too far removed from his physical body for the sensation to register beyond the fact that yes, there was a tear. It was a disorienting feeling to be so separated from the body he had inhabited for his whole life. Now as his flesh could no longer support his own life, they were separate, and it was unnerving.

 _Her body pulled along the length of his own, sweat-slicked skin sliding together. Her breath washed over his abdomen as her hands explored, reveling in his nakedness, hot tongue trailing kisses across his body. Passion, pure and heady, flooded his body, and he tossed his head back in ecstasy as she –_

Another pang of regret as his own memories sprang unbidden to the forefront of his mind, drowning out his other thoughts. It was as if he was one with his body again and was experiencing those sensations anew, for the first time. It was sharper and clearer than he could remember it before, and the waves of desire seemed to break over his consciousness with the force of a tidal wave.

He was going to leave her.

He was filled now with pain, not physical pain but torment over his fate. How could he leave her? He could see her eyes boring into his as if she'd asked the question herself, accusing and filled with grief. _How could you?_ she asked.

 _He marveled at the pull of his skin over hers, the warmth he felt behind her ear and down her throat, and she closed her eyes. Her breath washed over his wrist and her lashes brushed the inside of his thumb as he looked down on her, curled in the grass, asleep, clinging to his hand. He knew –_

 _No,_ he suddenly thought, furious, thinking of the moment that he knew that he would love her forever. _I refuse to die like this._

As if he was surfacing from a deep pool he forced himself back to his physical body, meeting the agony of his injuries with renewed vigor, clinging to hope.

 _I will not die here in solitude, Tenten._ He grit his teeth. _I will come back to you, I promise. Even if it means I die in your arms, I will see you again._

* * *

Serious mix of light and dark things in this collection. I warned you!

R&R :)


	3. 98 - Puzzle

One more for tonight. Don't worry, plenty more where that came from!

 **Day Ninety-Eight** – 12 November 2017

 **Prompt** – Puzzle

 **Summary** – Puzzles can be equally frustrating and entertaining.

 **Notes** – none this time!

 **Word Count** – 950

* * *

 **Puzzle**

"No, that's an _end piece,_ Tenten. It's got the straight edge on it."

"I don't think so, look at the edge, it's curved. I haven't seen a puzzle with a curved edge, have you?"

She hastily brushed her bangs out of her eyes, frustration growing as she sat across from one of the most infuriating people she had ever met. Infuriating as in he was almost always calm and collected and _damn_ attractive.

"Why did you decide that a puzzle would be a good idea, Neji?"

"Excuse me?" He asked coolly, tossing a lock of his hair over his shoulder. "It's raining outside so unless you would like to catch a cold while being soaked to the bone, we have to do something indoors." He crossed his arms across his chest for emphasis. "You're supposed to start with the edges of the puzzle first."

Tenten turned back to the one thousand loose pieces of cardboard strewn across the low table, biting her lip. _Always has to be right,_ she thought. Even so, she started collecting the pieces with a straight edge (and not a curved edge, since that was wrong) and piling them onto one side of the table. "Do something useful and start on something else. Maybe one of the faces."

Neji _humphed_ but said nothing as he picked from the other pieces, looking for similar ones to group together. Most of his time was spent looking at Tenten out of the corner of his eye, admiring the way she grumbled about a "stupid puzzle" even as she fervently gathered pieces to join together. Her outburst had left a pink tinge on her nose and cheeks, and the way that her eyebrows pulled together when she was concentrating was nearly irresistible.

For a while the only thing to be heard was the speaker behind them softly playing music to fill the silence.

Then she looked up at him and caught him staring. The tips of his ears flamed red, having been caught when he was supposed to be doing the puzzle.

He stood quickly. "I'm, ah…going to make some tea." He said quickly. She was in one of those moods; they had decided not to train that day due to heavy thunderstorms which had persisted throughout the whole day, and now that it was dusk the realization that they'd been cooped up inside all day had begun to wear on them. Well, wear on her; Neji rather liked a day or two inside with little to do. Tenten, on the other hand, was like a caged wildcat, ready to spring on whatever or _whoever_ she could. Hotblooded shinobi had a difficult time with nothing to do. And the way she had looked at him just then, she'd been about to pounce.

He entered the kitchen and filled the kettle with water as he gathered his hair up into a loose bun at the nape of his neck. Summer rain always made things so _sticky_ that it was nearly unbearable. Just the thought of drinking anything hot made him start sweating.

Even so, a calming tea might settle Tenten down a bit, then he could suggest something else. He loved her as she was, and out of all the people he knew how to channel her frustrations the best when she got like this. Usually Lee took the brunt of it (in good humor), but in his absence he was the only other target.

Not that he disliked it. Figuring her out was just as entertaining as the puzzle he'd left behind on the table.

When the water was hot he filled two mugs with tea leaves and filled them and carried them out to the table. She was still bent over the end pieces and was furiously placing them about the table to be put together. Neji paused to watch her, but she didn't notice.

When he finally dared to approach, her eyes snapped up to his. He couldn't help but smile at her expression.

"What?" She demanded as he handed her one of the cups.

"You're just so fascinating, Tenten." He stated. "I feel like I'm trying to solve a puzzle like this," he gestured to the loose pieces, "when I watch you."

She barked out a short laugh and took a sip. "Great, now I'm a puzzle."

He bent down to kiss the top of her head before sitting down in front of her. "You know that's not how I meant it," he said gently.

"I know," she sighed. "The weather's got me all jittery from being inside all day." Neji nodded knowingly.

"Chamomile will help," he said, gesturing to her cup, and she took another sip. "I know how you are, Tenten."

She gave him a half-smile before leaning in to kiss him, gently at first, then with greater intensity, bringing her hands up to his face to hold him there. He happily obliged by returning her kiss with matching fervor.

When they finally surfaced for air he breathed, "my tea, Tenten," against her lips, and she realized that he'd been holding his steaming cup away from them both as she'd unceremoniously stolen his attention. She laughed under hear breath as she gave him enough space to set it down on the table before rejoining him again, hands winding under his loose shirt even as his own followed.

After some indefinite time when they were both shining with a sheen of sweat and were panting for breath, she whispered against his neck, "if this is what comes of being your muse, then I will be your puzzle any night, Neji." She couldn't say any more, for he'd reclaimed her lips once again.

* * *

Stupid puzzles man. I hate puzzles.

R&R :)


	4. 97 - Safety First

RATED M FOR THIS ADDITION. Don't like sex, don't read.

Let's be honest I just wanted a reason to write a smutty scene of these two. "Safety first" JESUS these two are shinobi! Safety is about the last thing on anyone's mind in this profession!

Improvise, adapt, overcome, R&R.

 **Day Ninety-Seven** – 13 November 2017

 **Prompt** – Safety First

 **Summary** – Even when in the throes of passion, safety is paramount.

 **Notes** – n/a

 **Word Count** – 1497

* * *

 **Safety First**

 _This sure degenerated rather quickly, didn't it?_

The thought darted through his mind before being chased away by a myriad of sensations, drowned into oblivion as quickly as it came. He was awash with a thousand different feelings and a reckless sense of irrationality, and the funny thing was that he _enjoyed_ it. He had no desire to reclaim is thoughts and reorder them to strict rank and file, as they were the vast majority of the time. Only with her did he allow himself to fall apart in this way.

She took his earlobe into her mouth and tugged gently, breathing in his ear just enough to raise gooseflesh on his arms and tighten his core in anticipation. Her tongue slid languidly down the side of his neck towards the hollow of his throat even as she smiled against his flesh, a knowing smile. He was completely and utterly at her mercy.

"So, _Hyuga,_ " she purred as she rose above him, gazing down with her piercing eyes that shook him to his core. "What shall we do tonight?"

He tangled a finger through one of the loose bunches of hair that cascaded down her shoulders and gently tugged her closer as his other hand pressed her body against his. "What a stupid question, Tenten," he whispered. Her cheeks were tinged pink and her lips were full and soft and _so inviting_ that he couldn't help pulling her down to meet his own.

They were lost in their embrace for an indefinite amount of time, surfacing for breath when needed, heat and fire washing through their bodies with each touch and kiss and caress. They were wholly consumed by the other, neither yielding control or taking it, equally matched with their desires as they were. It seemed that they would be forever mired in a stalemate of passions when he paused and pulled away.

"I know I say it every time," he murmured as he gazed up at her, cupping her jaw in his palm, "but you're the most wildly beautiful thing I've held in my life." And it was true. She blushed and giggled softly in response.

"You know," she whispered. "I could say the same of you, though handsome might be a better choice." As if to put him back on track, she pressed her hips into his ever so slightly, reminding him of what they would be _doing_ tonight. "So what will it be, Neji? Am I yours tonight, or will you be mine?"

Her gyrations stoked his need for her body in such a profound way that he locked her ankle against his thigh with his own and flipped her over so that he was now the one bearing down on her. "You're mine tonight, my love. You can't play that game and not pretend to be ignorant of the consequences."

A fierce gleam leaped into her eyes then as he pinned her wrists down to the bed, callouses rough against the tender flesh. "Oh dear," she moaned in mock disappointment. "I am so upset that you would force yourself upon me like this, Hyuga."

He guided her hands up to the headboard where he pressed her palms into the wood, urging her to hold onto the frame. "Don't worry," he said, words rumbling from deep in his throat, thick with want. "I am sure I can make it worth your while to bear this _burden_ of my desire."

He pulled away from her then, making sure that her hands obediently remained wrapped around the headboard, and slid down to the foot of the bed where her legs dangled innocently from the comforter.

"I will start from your toes," he growled as he caressed the sole of one of her feet. "And work my way up." She squirmed in anticipation so he continued without further commentary. Words always seemed to get in the way, anyways.

With agonizing slowness, he trailed his lips across the insides of her ankles and up the sensitive bend of her knees, gently catching her skin with his teeth every so often, watching with a mixture of hunger and wonder at the different expressions that crossed her face. He ran his hands across her thighs and pushed her loose shorts up to her hips as he made his way across the skin there, deliberately avoiding brushing her core but always painfully close enough to make her ache with desire. She arched her back into his palms when he explored her stomach, running his tongue along the edge of her navel as he pressed a thumb into the sensitive crease of her hips. This elicited a delicious moan from her as she bucked her hips into him, panting for breath.

"Stay where you are," he murmured, "and I may _reward_ you for good behavior."

She gasped as he nipped at her stomach. "You're a fiend," she hissed. "A gloriously handsome fiend with a sick desire for unconventional torture…"

He pushed her shirt up and his tongue danced against the velvet skin beneath her breasts. "I seem to recall a similar situation that you put me in last time we were in this predicament," he pulled her shirt up over her body and let it settle against her wrists, leaving her body bare before him. At the cool rush of air her nipples contracted to diamonds where they sat begging for him to take them into his mouth. "I am just returning the favor, Tenten."

She moaned again arching her back towards his hands, watching him with such intensity that he was sure she could harm him with just her gaze. "Wicked," she breathed. "You're wicked."

He leaned over to touch a finger to the tip of her nose. "That's what I am here for, love." Then he smiled sweetly even as his hands took her breasts into his palms, filling them with their heavy warmth. He brought a rough thumb over one of the dusky peaks and watched as her jaw hung open with her own pleasure. His own body flooded with heat in response and his own shorts were rapidly becoming uncomfortably tight across his waist.

 _In due time,_ he promised as he trailed kisses up the length of her arms, letting his hair leave a dark, silky trail in his wake. He kissed each of her palms before returning the way he came, even as she strained to kiss his chest as he did so. He remained painstakingly out of reach, and she fell back to the covers, frustrated and wanting so much _more_ than he was giving.

Only when he returned to her breasts did he finally take them into his mouth, swirling his tongue against the hardened peaks and gently taking them between his teeth, reveling in the sounds she produced from his actions. She ground herself fervently against his hips for a moment and his own sound of pleasure was torn from his throat before he could stop himself. She was quickly pinned down to the bed with one hand to halt any further attempts for her to find her own release.

"That's my job," he whispered, even as he dipped his head lower and lower, taking her shorts with him. Only when she was completely naked beneath his hands did he reward her with one languid sweep of his tongue across her core. She was hot and wet and waiting for him, and he slowly increased the speed and intensity with which he stroked her, varying the touches with sucking and flicking until she wiggled passionately under his ministrations. She was close, trembling and mewling as she was. He would take her soon enough.

"I've decided to be merciful," he growled, "and allow you to come before I take you myself." At that instant he sank a finger into her warm core even as he took her into his mouth once more, stroking the spongy flesh on the roof of her body, urging her over the edge.

She, of course, was more than happy to oblige him, and her body quivered and contracted around his hand even as she moaned his name with such passion it was all he could do to keep himself from plunging in at that moment. He drew her pleasure out as long as he could until her body went slack with her final release and she lay, shaking and panting, amidst the ruffled comforter. She pulled him to her then, crushing his lips against hers, and raised her hips to meet his erection, and suddenly he was annoyed that he hadn't properly undressed himself first.

Tenten made quick work of the barriers between them, and as she urged him to cover her body with his own, meeting his desire with matched intensity, he deftly reached over to produce a small foil-wrapped packet from the nightstand drawer.

"Safety first," he breathed against her lips, and then he took her, completely, and there was not another spoken word between the two.

* * *

R&R, hopefully that was an _enjoyable_ experience (it was for me writing it)!


	5. 96 - In the Storm

I have to apologize for the quality of this one. I'm significantly drunk because I was celebrating two successful midterms and wanted to write this before I celebrated but it didn't work out...

More (and better stories) tomorrow! I should be uploading two separate chapters tomorrow :)

 **Day Ninety-Six** – 14 November 2017

 **Prompt** – In the Storm

 **Summary** – When facing enemies together, it's difficult to not notice the way her body moved through each deadly stance...he wanted her. Now.

 **Notes** – Arc with Raiga and Ranmaru and that goodness. Alternate ending to this arc (obviously more Nejiten focused, Neji had a significant lack of speaking parts in this arc which made me sad).

 **Word Count** – 958

* * *

 **In the Storm**

He was aware of her hands around his body as she carried him through the rain.

 _What happened?_

When she placed him upon a hard stone floor, he urged himself into full consciousness. _The curry…_ a shudder diffused through his body. _What an awful experience._

"Are you okay?" Tenten pressed a palm to his forehead as if checking for fever. He t _sked_ his tongue and brushed her worry away.

"I'm fine, Tenten." He insisted. "The blasted curry got the best of me, that's all."

"Well," she said, pulling away and smiling halfheartedly, "we did know that you weren't all that good with spicy foods."

She handed him a cup of water to help clear his head. As he drank, she shook her head, flinging droplets of rain every which way from her damp locks. She'd carried him out of the rain into a cave in the rocky outcropping they'd been fighting on. It was a decent place as any to recover from whatever abomination that old woman had shoveled into his mouth.

"Where's Lee? And Naruto?" he asked as he handed the cup back to her for her to seal away in her scrolls again.

She grumbled something under her breath. "Lee's drunk and Naruto went off on one of his inspirational speeches again."

Neji nodded knowingly. "We should get back to them then. No telling what sort of trouble they've managed to get themselves into this time."

Tenten eyed him cautiously as he got to his feet, but there were no signs of lasting effects from the curry. He stood as smoothly as if he'd just been meditating instead of recovering from the shock that was the Curry of Life.

They departed without another word.

Following the distant echoes of thunder they came upon the battlefield within moments. Lee was unconscious on the ground behind Naruto and that kid Ranmaru, while Raiga laughed in their faces and prepared to dispatch them with a bolt of lightning.

"Tenten," Neji said, and without another word the pair leaped onto the scene. No words were necessary for this fight. They'd trained together for thousands upon thousands of hours, and all it took was a certain look or motion of hand to communicate with one another.

The rain continued to fall in torrents and their clothing and hair became plastered to their heads. It brought a sense of cold clarity to their fight, and Neji was grateful for the help in clearing his head fully after the disastrous encounter with the Curry.

A bolt of lightning fell from the heavens towards his partner, and as she nimbly dodged it he had to dart heavily to the right to avoid another strike. It fell like a hammer blow and the force of the thunder that followed on its heels was loud enough to nearly rupture his eardrums. Still, they forged ahead.

Neji struck first, winding his way around the bladed spikes Raiga held, striking at whatever points he could reach before he had to withdraw. One of Raiga's arms went slack even as he screamed his fury to the sky, churning the storm above.

Tenten attacked next on the heel of his blows, striking with kunai at his throat and thighs and arms. She landed several successive blows and claret splattered the rocks.

They withdrew then surged foward again. Tenten jumped to the lead this time, pulling out a scroll and tossing a lit explosive to the feet of their opponent. With little time to react, Raiga brought his hands up to shield his face, but it did little to protect him from the blast. His body skipped along the plateau towards Neji, who stood and waited patiently to strike.

A breath came, deep and cold and steadying, into his lungs as he stepped forward with deadly precision, striking Raiga in the abdomen with his fist, flooding his body with chakra and sending him flying into the chasm beyond the plateau to certain death.

Hot flashes of lightning followed Raiga's body downwards, and as the pair leaped to the rim of the canyon to confirm their victory, his body disintegrated in a brilliant flash of electricity, burning into nothing more than ash.

Tenten was the first to turn away, not needing any further confirmation. She clasped his shoulder as she did so, pouring her thankfulness and admiration into that one touch. He confirmed Raiga's demise with the Byakugan before following, grasping her forearm.

"Neji! Tenten!" Naruto approached with Lee and Ranmaru in tow. "That was amazing!" His beaming face soon became a barrier between the two, and Neji caught a knowing gleam in Tenten's eye. She wanted him, here and now, after their flawless victory on the battlefield as a couple. He'd seen that look only once before, and he couldn't act on it then because Gai Sensei had been standing with them gloating about youth and victory.

He wouldn't waste such an opportunity now.

"Naruto," Neji said, hard edge in his voice. "If you know what's good for you and Lee and Ranmaru, you will turn away and go back to the curry shop. Now."

"B-but-"

"Now, I said." His eyes locked with Tenten's and (thankfully) Naruto withdrew without asking any more questions. As uncharacteristic as that was for him, Neji wasn't about to complain.

As soon as they had departed, Neji approached.

"My beautiful lady," he whispered. "I see the look in your eye."

She blushed. "Don't pretend that you don't feel it too, Neji."

He crushed her lips against his then because _of course_ he could feel the fire in her blood. They were meant for each other in every way, shape, and form. And he vowed to take her in a storm of fury and passion here and now, amidst the falling rain.


	6. 95 - Advertisement

Longest one to date, the words just kept coming and they kept pushing me and pushing me to write and I went along with it without question. YEAH BOI GET SOME!

This is rated a soft M. It's soft and fluffy and sexy all at the same time.

R&R!

 **Day Ninety-Five** – 15 November 2017

 **Prompt** – Advertisement

 **Summary** – Nejiten + new advertisements = ? He's just happy she came across the ad for bath beads...

 **Notes** – Shippuden era

 **Word Count** – 2271

* * *

 **Advertisement**

"Hey look," Tenten tugged on the sleeve of her partner's robes. "You like soba, right?"

She watched him nonchalantly flick a handful of stray hairs out of his eyes and tuck them back in line with the rest. "I do," he said, "but I need a bath first."

They looked away from the brightly colored flier and down on themselves, wrinkling their noses at their appearance. Dirt and sweat and – in some places – blood left only a small handful of their clothes their original color. It had been a difficult mission which had devolved into hand-to-hand combat on multiple occasions, and when you're fighting for your life your clothing took a backseat in favor of self-preservation.

Tenten sighed and crossed her arms, pulling them in tightly to her body in an attempt to hide the grime beneath her forearms. "I suppose you're right," she replied. "We can't go anywhere looking like this."

They took a few more steps forward when another flier caught her eye. This one seemed fitting for their predicament.

"Scented soap?" Neji asked incredulously when she'd pointed it out to him.

"Not just scented soap. They have foaming bath beads." Tenten pointed at the bottom of the flier.

"I honestly don't even know what those are, Tenten."

She laughed then and said "how about I show you? You run and get soba for two and I'll get bath beads and we'll head to my place."

His cheeks suddenly flushed pink at her suggestion and the way she eyed him knowingly. _A bath with her would be nice,_ he thought. _Especially with her._ Flashes of memories darted into his mind of her body before he hastily brushed them aside.

She tossed him a few coins to cover her meal and said "hop to it, Hyuga. It's a date."

"Hn." He sighed even as he smiled to himself. "I will drop by the compound to pick up a change of clothes, unless you expect me to walk home naked." She nodded as she sauntered off, waving her hand at him to get moving.

It really wasn't all that strange to see shinobi walking through town looking as she did. It's not as if every mission went flawlessly and everyone looked clean and trim on their return. Besides, walking into a soap shop when one was in need of a wash wouldn't be all that strange.

At least that's what she told herself as she rounded the corner of the next block.

The soap shop was quaint and colorful and so clean when she arrived that Tenten almost turned back around. There was no way she was going to be smiled upon walking into that place, even if it was a soap shop. Colorful streamers and banners waved in the wind as they advertised the current sale on their bath beads, and Tenten hung her head and considered her options.

It was the thought of a nice, hot bath with Neji that finally made her step forward across the threshold. There was no way she was going to pass that up, especially since she was the one who suggested it.

Thankfully, the shop owner was more than happy to sell her whatever she needed, taking pity on her appearance and knowing she was a prime target for a large sale. Only when Tenten's arms were piled with different soaps and oils and bath beads did the old woman let Tenten buy anything. Perhaps it was the guilt of walking into the shop looking so unsightly or the visions of the upcoming night with the Hyuga, but Tenten didn't complain about the pushiness of the owner and happily bought everything the old woman handed her.

"Thank you!" she said as she exited the shop, swinging the bag of soaps over her shoulder. She couldn't wait to let the layers of grime soak away in the tub and she picked up her pace to get home.

He was waiting for her at her threshold.

"You could've just let yourself in," she admonished as she unlocked the door. "You know how to open the window."

"I prefer to not look like some criminal in broad daylight, Tenten."

"So only in the middle of the night then?"

He _tsked_ his tongue and frowned ever so slightly but said nothing in reply.

She walked into the bathroom and set her bag on the counter as he placed two bowls of soba on her dining table, tossing his own bag down the hallway in her direction.

"I didn't know you were going to buy the whole shop," he called playfully to her.

"The shopkeeper was quite persuasive, and I felt bad walking in there looking like a garbage heap," she retorted as she started the water. "I'm thinking of just tossing these clothes. They're probably beyond help."

"I would do the same, but you know how expensive these robes are." He approached then, holding the bowls in his hands and two sets of chopsticks in his teeth.

She laughed when she saw him. "That's a good look for you, Neji."

"Hn," he said again, but she saw his lips turn up just the slightest at her remark.

He watched with rapt attention as she began peeling herself out of her clothing. "Forget tossing these, I'm just going to burn them," she groused. When he didn't reply, she looked over at him where he stood frozen to the floor, food still in hand and chopsticks in his mouth, eyes locked on her form. "Getting a good look there, Neji?"

He shook his head and hastily set the food down before removing his own clothing, ears flaming. "Sorry," he muttered, "I just got carried away."

She leaned over to kiss his shoulder as he bent to pull his pants off. "I think it's cute," she said. "Now, into the tub. I'll show you why bath beads are so great." She set her purchases on the floor next to the tub within easy reach before planting a firm slap on his behind to urge him along.

"Was that really necessary?" He grumbled, but obediently stepped into the tub, wincing as the hot water nipped at his skin. She handed him his soba and chopsticks and grabbed hers in one hand and a handful of chalky, colorful spheres in the other. She kicked a small footstool she kept out of the way as she approached the bath.

"Now watch," she said as she sank into the water opposite him, knees knocking against his, and let the beads fall into the tub.

For a moment nothing happened, and Neji was about to voice his disappointment, but then the water started to bubble and fiz and a faint aroma of lavender and vanilla wafted up from the surface. He laughed then.

"I suppose they're rather entertaining," he said as he flipped his hair over the edge of the tub to keep it out of the water before opening his soba. "I like the scent."

"These have bath salts in them," she replied as she did the same. "Helps with muscle soreness and all that."

They ate from their containers as the water continued to bubble around them, and they were content.

"What else did that shop keep give you?" He asked between mouthfuls.

"Well," she swallowed and picked up more noodles, "I got several kinds of bath beads, some oils for your hair and skin, and a few types of body soaps." She reached for a box on the ground next to her, picking it up and examining the label. "This is some exfoliating thing. I think it'll come in handy to scrape all this gunk off."

When they finished, they set the containers on the tile next to the tub and sank into the water, letting the salts lift dirt off their skin and soothe away aches and pains. She let her arms sink into the water and draped her forearms across his ankles even as he took her calves into his palms, gently massaging.

Only when the water had begun to run cold did they stir.

"I'm going to redo this with another set of beads," Tenten said as she began to drain the tub. "That one should've loosened all the grime. I can scrape the rest off this round."

He stood and stepped out and into the shower. "I need to wash my hair," he said. "Go ahead, I'll join you again in a second."

As the tub emptied and refilled, she could see his outline as he scrubbed and rinsed his hair, then the rest of his body. "I have to say," his voice echoed off the frosted glass surrounding the shower, "I can't ever remember a shower feeling so good in my entire life."

She laughed as he shut off the water and wrapped his hair in a towel, piling it atop his head. She lazily leaned over the tub and watched him, shamelessly admiring the planes of his chest, his rigid abdomen, the thick chunks of muscle that contracted and relaxed in his arms, down to the sinewy length of his legs.

"Has anyone told you yet how flawless you are, Neji?" She asked as he turned to face her. Her eyebrow quirked up as she beheld him and all his glory and it was amusing to see that he was more than a little aroused.

"Seems that you tell me that every time you look at me," he said, noticing where her attention was now focused. "In due time, Tenten. You need to actually finish scrubbing yourself down, if I remember correctly. You said so yourself."

She sank back down into the tub as he reached over to shut off the water. "You're also ridiculously stubborn," she muttered under her breath, grabbing the nearest group of bath beads and dropping them into the water. The tang of cinnamon soon filled the air.

As she reached for a loofah and one of the new soaps, he caught her gently by her wrist. "May I help you?" He asked softly. She wordlessly handed the sponge and soap over to him, and he pulled her footstool she'd previously kicked aside next to the tub while unraveling his hair, letting it cascade freely over his back.

He started at her hands, clearing her skin of any remaining streaks of grime. He traveled up her arms and across her shoulders, lifting her hair out of the way to reach her neck. "I'll come back to your hair in a minute," he promised. At his urging, she brought her legs up out of the water so he could run the loofah over them as well before returning to brush her throat and collarbones. With deliberate slowness, he washed her breasts while she watched him with a single-minded intensity. More than once he lifted his pale eyes to hers, holding her for a moment before returning his attention to her body.

"I know what you're doing," she whispered.

"Then let me. It's not every day I have the pleasure of having you all to myself."

She acquiesced quietly as he motioned for her to duck beneath the water to wet her hair. He took one of the small bottles of oil from her pile at his feet and filled his palms with the contents of one. The scent of coconut diffused through the air.

"You'll have to wash your hair yourself in the shower, along with the _rest_ of your body," he murmured, placing emphasis onto that one word and conveying much more than he'd spoken. "But I am more than willing to give you a massage beforehand."

"How very generous of you, Neji," she purred back to him. "Go on."

His oil-slicked fingers ran easily between strands of her hair, and she leaned heavily into his touch as his hands roved over her scalp, gently pushing and pulling, working down to her skin. He moved slowly to the base of her skull where he pushed on the muscles there, kneading them with his thumbs until he was satisfied they were soft and loose. There was a pause as he reached for more oil, then he worked his way down to the tops of her shoulders, then her back, then across her collarbones and out to the front of her shoulders. She could feel his breath, soft and inviting, curling against her skin as he worked. The moment was heady and intense and soft and caring all at once. He seemed to know just how to combine all those feelings into one moment.

She moaned softly as his hands splayed across her chest before dipping lower to cup her breasts in his palms. His skin slid easily over hers as he squeezed and rolled her flesh with careful deliberation, and she leaned her head back to rest against the soft space between his neck and shoulder, sighing in pleasure. He turned to kiss the side of her throat even as he took her nipples between his fingers, pouring love and desire into his touch. He was better able to describe his feelings for her in this way; even though he considered himself to be rather eloquent, words always escaped him when he tried to capture his feelings for her.

"Neji…" she whispered, and he hummed in response, acknowledging her need.

"Now," he said softly. "Go shower. I will be waiting."

She turned to kiss him, long and slow and sweet, before standing to step out of the tub. The scent of cinnamon stoked his need and filled his head with nothing more than his desire to feel her beneath his own body.

"Be ready, Hyuga," she growled like a wildcat. "We're just getting started."


	7. 94 - Last Hope

Prequel: Day 99 - Solitude

Sequel - Day 93 - Give Up

This idea was _the original_ inspiration for this challenge. I have been itching to write it and finally it's spilling onto the page. I don't know if they go over just how Neji and everyone else got back to Konoha after that Sasuke Retrieval disaster (if they do in Shippuden please tell me episode number so I can watch) so I'm writing a Nejiten version of how he got back, at least.

R&R :)

 **Day Ninety-Four** – 15 November 2017

 **Prompt** – Last Hope

 **Summary** – How did Neji get back to Konoha after his disastrous (though victorious) battle against Kidomaru? Tenten, obviously.

 **Notes** – Kids are 16, not 12 or whatever…makes a bit more sense to me!

 **Word Count** – 1401

* * *

 **Last Hope**

"They _what?_ " Tenten's heart sank into her toes at the Hokage's words.

Tsunade pinched the space between her eyebrows with finger and thumb and said "judge me if you must, but do it while you move with the medical teams. It's imperative that we get all five of them back home and _alive._ " She turned to stare out the windows at her back, hunching her shoulders. "I fear that it may already be too late. What we know of these Sound Four ninja doesn't bode well for them." She turned around abruptly to face her again. "Go! There is no time to waste!"

"Yes ma'am!" Tenten didn't need any further urging. The knowledge that her fellow shinobi – and one very dear one in particular – were in mortal danger was enough to wash the exhaustion from her limbs and flood her veins with the fire of desperation.

The medical teams the Hokage had dispatched stood ready to leave at the front gates of the village, muttering uncertainly at each other. Tenten noted several other non-medical nin fanned out through the crowd, including a handful of gennin. There was only one chunnin and no jounin to join them; Tenten knew the ninja were spread thin, but up until this moment she hadn't considered just how sparse their ranks were.

Two more shinobi joined the group, then at a command of the medical team lead they departed with all due haste towards the Hidden Sound.

 _Please be okay,_ she hoped. _Please let everyone be okay, but especially him. Please._

She'd only just returned on a separate mission with Ino and Hinata – it had been a last-minute piecemeal team scrapped together for some immediate (but minor) issue – and had just turned down the street to her apartment when she'd been intercepted by Shizune. She'd been haggard and frantic and covered in dust and blood from battle, but her orders had been sharp and concise. _Meet Lady Tsunade in her office. Now._ And then she'd leaped away down another corner.

That was the first time she'd had the sense that something was horribly, terribly wrong.

When she'd heard the news that her fellow gennin had left on what now seemed to be a suicide mission against Orochimaru's own body guards, that same feeling nearly struck her to her knees. Even Lee had managed to sneak out to follow them. Both of her teammates were out there facing certain death from highly skilled opponents and they had no idea.

Perhaps they did now. _Don't think of that possibility,_ she schooled herself. _Do the mission. Get them back home, alive._ She burned with her conviction.

She shoved off the branch of the tree beneath her feet and lunged for the next, fear and worry burning in her lungs and muscles. _Find them, bring them home. Find them, bring them home. Bring_ him _home._ She chanted this like a mantra to herself with every footfall.

The third time she was confronted by the profound feeling of dread, it was where a battle had taken place. Splatters of blood and loose kunai lay scattered about the area, but there were no bodies, just a few places where it looked as if heavy objects had been dragged through the bracken.

"Two jounin faced the Sound Four here." One medical nin said as they paused to examine the scene. "Genma and Raido. Shizune and Iwashi had to drag them back to the village, and without a second to spare." Tenten's stomach sank once again. _Two highly trained jounin…no, four jounin couldn't defeat these guys?_ She swallowed thickly. _There's little chance that five gennin could face them and live._

She shook her head as they resumed their travel, brushing that thought aside. _Find them, bring them home._

They found the scene of a different battle a handful of leagues from the first. The very ground was torn to shreds as if two gargantuan beings and dueled among the trees. There was one body at the scene, though from the looks of him he was one of the Sound Four. Not one of the gennin.

 _Thank Kami,_ Tenten thought, and a fraction of the tension constricting her heart receded. _Maybe they did stand a chance._

Her hope was quickly dashed when they traveled further into the trees and found Choji, unconscious and close to death, his body a wreck of broken bones, torn tendons and internal damage. How he was even alive was a feat in and of itself.

Numbness washed over Tenten as she observed the medical nin leaping into action, stabilizing his condition and prepping him for travel. She heard vague snips of conversation about _travelling quickly_ and that there wasn't much time to save him, _he had to go back now_. But they failed to register in her brain.

 _One enemy did this to Choji. How did any of them hope to survive?_

One of the other gennin traveling with the group stepped up to carry Choji back while the rest carried on. The medics stabilized him the best they could before handing him off; after a short but intense deliberation it was decided that they couldn't spare other medical nin to travel back with him. "If the others are as bad as he is, we need our combined strength to just stave off death," they said. "We can't do anything beyond superficial healing out here, so it's best to have as many people to help steady them and then get them back as quickly as possible."

They pressed on. And with every step they traveled the weight on Tenten's chest seemed to grow larger and larger.

They found him a short while later, and it felt as if every piece of Tenten's existence shattered the minute she lay eyes on him.

Blood. Kunai. Silk threads. _Arrows._

The holes in his body stood gaping in his flesh, red and bleeding and angry. He lay limp in the arms of one of the medics, unresponsive to any of their attempts to drag him into consciousness.

Tenten thought for sure he was dead. No one could survive such catastrophic damage and hope to survive but mere minutes, if at all. She sank to her knees, speechless, dumbstruck.

"He's still breathing." She heard one of the medics say.

 _What?_

She scrambled back to her feet and hovered over the shoulders of the medical nin, trying to get a clear glimpse of his body. All she could see was tattered tan clothing, bright red claret, and thick locks of his hair that fanned about the area.

They quickly removed his shirt with knives and began packing the holes in his body with layer after layer of gauze. There were six holes in his back along with two much larger ones above his left shoulder and on his right hip.

"What an animal," one of the medical nin sighed. "Shooting his poor victims with arrows like prey…couldn't ask for a more painful way to go."

Tenten looked over at a second body that lay sprawled a few feet away, sickened to see that he had three pairs of arms instead of one. _Animal doesn't even begin to describe it,_ she thought.

"That's as good as he's going to get," another announced. "We just have to hope that he doesn't bleed out before he gets back to the village, and that the internal damage he's suffered doesn't overwhelm him before he gets help." They all stood and surveyed the group. "Who will take him?"

"I wi-"

"No you will not!" Tenten growled at the other gennin who dared to step up to volunteer. "I will take him. He's my teammate. I will do anything in my power to get him back alive."

They nodded, taken aback by her vehement response, but let her scoop him up in her arms and cradle him against her chest. He was still breathing, his heart was still beating, he was alive. That was what she'd hoped for. Now, she had to get him back as quickly as possible.

Determination flowed hot through her veins as she stood. _I will get you home safe,_ she promised.

"Be swift," one of the medics said to her, and she nodded even as she leaped off the ground with all the power she could muster.

 _Hang in there, Neji. Hang in there a bit longer. I will get you home, and you will be safe._

* * *

I crie errytiem... :(


	8. 93 - Give Up

Prequel: Day 94

Sequel: Day 92

Well...I don't have much to say, other than stay tuned :( :( :(

 **Day Ninety-Three** – 16 November 2017

 **Prompt** – Give Up

 **Summary** – Tenten races towards the village to save her partner, but will she be quick enough?

 **Notes** – Same lines as day 94.

 **Word Count** – 1060

* * *

 **Give Up**

When her legs ached and her lungs burned with a pain so fierce she thought she'd never catch her breath again, she persisted.

Every strike of her feet on the trees urged her faster and faster, knowing that his salvation drew closer and closer.

She just had to _keep going._

Neji hadn't stirred in her arms since she'd frantically raced back towards Konoha as fast as she was physically able. Every second she found herself checking for breathing, holding her own breath until she could hear his own rattle in his chest.

 _Internal bleeding,_ she thought grimly. _I have to keep moving. Faster, Tenten!_ And she pushed off the nearest branch with renewed vigor.

The gaping wounds in his body seemed to draw her attention, though she tried to look away. Bright red with his blood and gaping like open mouths, they devoured his lifeblood even as it spilled over her hands. The packing had held up for mere minutes; the gauze had been freshly soaked before she was out of sight of the medical nin.

 _Faster._

 _Faster._

 _Move faster!_

The wind whipped her hair flat against her skull and her eyes watered as she increased her speed. _It doesn't matter,_ she told herself as the fire in her own body surged to greater intensity, _just keep moving._

And she did. Her desperation drove her into a state of numbness as she leaped from tree to tree, pushing herself to reach the next branch quicker than she had the last. Eventually all she could see was whatever was directly in front of her. Everything else had tunneled away into blackness.

When he seized in her grip she nearly dropped him with her own shock. The movement of his body forced her to stop and cling to him to try to keep him from damaging anything else as he struggled. "Neji!" She shouted, and the sound of his name seemed to quiet something within him, and the convulsions stopped as quickly as they came. His eyes wandered restlessly under their lids and he coughed once, forcefully, splattering fresh gore onto the front of his chest.

 _I have to keep moving,_ Tenten thought, and shoved off the branch beneath her feet. _He's not going to last much longer._

She cradled him closer, feeling her heart tighten with fear, fear that even if she were the swiftest kunoichi in existence, she wouldn't reach help in time.

 _Faster. Go faster. Don't think, move!_

"…T-Tenten…?"

The sound of her own name was so painfully choked she didn't recognize it at first. Only when she looked down to check his breathing again did she notice that his eyes were half-open, gazing up at her with the most hopeless expression she'd ever seen on a person's face that her resolve nearly shattered.

She stopped again, kneeling down to press his body closer to her chest, holding his gaze even as tears began to stream down her face. "I'm here, Neji."

"Ten…" He couldn't finish this time.

"Don't speak," she whispered, leaning down to kiss his forehead. "I'm here, I've got you, we're going to make it home. Don't worry, Neji."

"I-I'm…" His words were drowned in an agonizing moan. "I'm s-sorry…"

When tears began to fall from his own eyes she had to look away to keep herself together. "Don't be…hang on just a few more minutes, we're almost home."

He turned his head into her chest, and she could feel his tears soaking into her blouse. Sobs were torn from his throat and she could tell he was trying with all the effort he could muster to hold them back. His whole body shook as if with chill as he cried.

 _This is his breaking point,_ Tenten thought absentmindedly as she reached down to wipe his tears away. _It takes him dying to break his will._

"I…I can't, T-Tenten…" he sobbed, "it's t-too much…"

"Don't say that, Neji," Tenten retorted with more conviction than she could ever hope to have in a moment like this. "You just stay with me a little longer, hold onto me, and we'll make it. I'll make sure you get home."

She didn't wait for his answer as she took off again, her own tear streaming in a glittering wake behind her. He continued to shake, but she knew that if he was shaking he was alive. Anything counted at this point. When he started to quiet she dug her nails into his arm and his thigh, where she held him, and forced him to stay awake.

"Focus on each breath, Neji. Focus on drawing it in and breathing out. Please," she pleaded, "don't give up, just focus on taking the next breath. That's all I ask…"

He said nothing, and even though she could sense him pouring every ounce of effort into that one task, he began to slip. A breath wouldn't come for a few seconds, then a few more, then a few more, until it seemed that he was hardly able to fill his lungs with the smallest bit of air. His life was slowly draining away even as his blood coated her forearms with renewed vigor. _He's lost too much,_ she thought.

"Almost there, Neji," she told him as she saw the village gates come into view. "We're almost there, just hang on."

Her legs burned and her lungs burned and everything _burned_ with pain, but it couldn't compare to the depths of the agony she knew awaited her if she allowed him to pass into the void before she reached the village.

"Ten…ten…" Her name slipped from his mouth with the barest of sounds, and even as it did she felt his body go slack in her hold. His eyes drifted shut, dark eyelashes resting daintily against pale skin, and she froze, waiting for him to take another breath, _just one more breath, Neji._

As she burst through the main gates, shocking passersby with her precious cargo, Tenten dropped to her knees and cried out in anguish, for his chest did not rise again and the blood which soaked her clothes sealed his fate more firmly than any proclamation that could be made.

He'd given up, and even though she knew it wasn't his fault, that his body couldn't hope to sustain his life any longer in his condition, she knew she would never forgive him.


	9. 92 - All That I Have

Prequel: Day 93

Sequel: Day 91

Another continuation. I suppose this 100 theme challenge will have stories within a story. I like this current arc so we will keep flowing.

I will have a ton more variety coming up, including a real-world AU (for those who wanted it, it's planned!).

Also I'm aware that Tenten actually has B blood and you can't donate B blood to an O recipient, but this is a _fictional_ story so it fits with my ideas.

Let me know how I'm doing! R&R!

 **Day Ninety-Two** – 17 November 2017

 **Prompt** – All That I Have

 **Summary** – Is what Tenten has to give enough to save him?

 **Notes** – Same lines as day 93.

 **Word Count** – 1795

* * *

 **All That I Have**

"It will not end like this!"

Tenten jerked to her feet and jumped to the nearest rooftop.

"Neji!"

She leaped across the main road to the top of the next building, then jumped again, tearing her way towards the hospital.

"Wake up!"

Her heels dug into hardpacked earth when she slid to a stop in front of the hospital. She burst through the doors, much to the horror of the front office staff.

"Help, now!" She pleaded, vision blurred with tears, as two people in clean smocks stepped forward to guide her through a set of doors. She was hastily shoved into a tiny room with a bare metal table, stark and cold, in the middle.

"Get him on the table," she heard someone say, and she lifted him up, eyes locked onto his face.

Lifeless, pale. The curse mark stood prominently upon his brow, glaring.

 _Wait, the curse mark!_ If he was dead it would have faded away, hadn't he said that?

"Step back," she was ordered, and she retreated to a far corner, heart fluttering frantically in her chest. _He's not dead, he's not dead…_

She averted her gaze when the remains of his clothing were cut away, if only to preserve a sense of modesty. She understood the need, but this was _Neji._ They hovered over him, checking his vitals.

"We've got a pulse, no breath, get me a resuscitator," someone said. A rubber-lined mask with an air bladder was shoved in the medic's direction, and they fixed the mask over his nose and mouth and began pumping, forcing air down into his body. One side of his chest inflated with breath, the other did not.

"We've got blood in the chest cavity, we need to drain now." A metal tube and a scalpel was procured from somewhere under the table. Before Tenten could even register what had happened, Neji's side had been cut open and the rod unceremoniously shoved into his body with a firm _slap._

The fountain of blood which flowed from the rod immediately after made her blanch and her knees grow weak. _It's just blood, it's his blood, he's alive,_ she told herself.

"He'll do much better here in a second," one of them reassured her as they dragged their knuckles into the bony ridge in the middle of his chest. Whatever they were doing seemed to drag him back into consciousness, and there was a moment where his eyes flew open, milky lavender reflecting the garish light that illuminated the room, and he froze.

And then he screamed.

She'd heard people scream before. In pain, in anguish, it was a natural reaction to something excruciating. She'd even heard Lee make sounds like this before, during the chunnin exams. But to hear such a horrific sound come out of _his_ mouth, it shook her to her very core.

The cry ended abruptly when he choked on his own blood, and he coughed viciously even as the two medics tilted him onto his side to help clear his mouth. The howls continued shortly thereafter.

 _This is a nightmare,_ Tenten thought, unable to bear the sight of him but unable to look away. There was just something so fundamentally _wrong_ that this prodigy, the person she cared for deeply, her sparring partner and friend, be wrenched down to a state like this. It clashed heavily with the other memories she had of him, strong and stoic and calm, that the Neji on the table crying for relief seemed to be some sort of sick, twisted travesty.

And yet they were the same person.

The laid him back down even as they began a thorough examination of his body, running hands over every limb and surface, checking for broken bones, seemingly oblivious to the horrific sounds coming from their patient.

"We need you to help," one of them called over to her. "Try to calm him down so we can fully assess his condition."

Tenten swallowed thickly but forced herself to move forward to him. _It's still Neji,_ she reminded, _it's still him and he needs you._

She took his head between her hands and tilted her own between his face and the light of the lamps above, shielding his eyes from their stabbing brilliance. At her touch his jaw snapped shut, ending his cries, and his eyes met hers. Tears seemed to flow of their own accord down into her fingers as he grimaced. His brow pulled tightly downwards over his eyes and she saw his body convulse with another howl, but he managed to keep it locked behind his bared teeth.

"I need you to be strong," she whispered. "I need you to hold still so the medics can finish their exam, then they will help you. Do you hear what I'm saying?"

He made no sound but nodded feebly, bringing one of his hands up to hold onto one of hers. She grasped his knuckles tightly even as another spasm shook his body.

"I'm so sorry for this, Neji," she told him. "Whatever happens, I'm here. I won't leave. I promise."

He did something that utterly astounded her then. He smiled, he _smiled,_ as weak and pathetic as it was. Here he was drowning in all-encompassing agony and he smiled at her.

"T-thanks…" he managed to whisper, and Tenten could only nod in response as her throat constricted with emotion, tears filling her eyes for what seemed to be the hundredth time that day.

He didn't take his eyes from hers as the medics finished their exam and began to remove the packing from the gaping wounds in his body. Tenten looked down at his shoulder only once, and when she saw the gleam of polished steel _through_ his body she knew she couldn't look again. There was a hole through his entire body. _How were they going to fix that?_ As it was, they had to pour a significant amount of their own chakra into him to just stem the bleeding to try to tide him over until more skilled medical nin could arrive and attempt to fix the damage done.

She steadied him when they rolled him onto his side again to inspect the damage to his back from the kunai. Her arm pressed against his chest and her forearm held him in place as they quickly stitched the pockets of flesh back together and covered each with a bandage. He broke then for a few moments and she felt the sobs ripple through his body. Pity welled in her heart. _He's trying so hard._

When they tilted him back over, she noticed a deathly pallor had crept into his skin, worse than before, and his lips had gone blue. He put every effort into maintaining eye contact with her, but he seemed to be slipping. The medics had to dig their knuckles into his sternum more and more often to keep him conscious.

"We need a transfusion," one of them finally announced, and turned to her. "Do you know his blood type?"

Tenten shook her head. That wasn't something she would have been tasked with memorizing. One of the other medics left and returned shortly with a medical file, presumably Neji's.

"We're critically low on extra blood," another one said. "We used a lot during that business with the Sand and haven't recovered."

"Check the stores," came the reply, though it was strained. Fear took hold of her body as she watched the medical nin hurry away. _If we came all this way to be stopped now…_

Upon his return, the medic shook his head. "He's the only blood type that we don't have, nor can we give him a different type."

"Can you take mine?" Tenten asked, furious, shaking, desperate.

"Are you O?"

"Yes," she said, "take whatever he needs."

They took her away from him to sit her down in a chair and shove a needle into the crook of her arm, filling one plastic bag, then two more. "We're taking more from you than your average donation," she was told as her head began to spin, "but hopefully this will be enough to stabilize his condition."

"Whatever needs to be done, do it." She hissed at him, even as he took the needle out of her arm.

He ran off taking his precious donation with him, and she sat for a few moments, feeling lightheaded and sick, though she knew most of it was with worry.

 _Get up,_ she told herself, and she shuffled down the hallway back to him, always back to him. The bags of her own blood were suspended above his body and feeding into a tube which buried itself in the side of his neck. He wasn't shouting any longer, though his eyebrows would pull together every so often in discomfort. He'd been moved to a padded gurney and two apprentices were furiously cleaning the table he'd been on before, deftly soaking up the blood which splattered every horizontal surface.

They had his head turned to the side to keep the line to his body still and to focus his attention elsewhere as they continued work, hands glowing a faint green where they touched his body, healing and mending internal damage. He was lucid enough to notice that she was there.

"We finished the examination," they told her as she approached, "and besides the trauma to his shoulder, chest, and hip, there seems to be no other significant damage. We gave him a dose of a numbing agent for now."

"Good," she said as she kneeled down in front of him, taking the hand that he reached for her with.

"He's by no means out of the woods yet, but for now he's stable enough to wait for Shizune to ready her team," the medic continued. "With fresh blood, we can hold him steady for a while yet."

His eyes were bleary and unfocused, heavy with the numbing drug, but he wouldn't let himself rest while she was here. She pressed her forehead to his as a wave of dizziness overcame her.

"Stay…" he whispered.

"Don't worry, Neji," she replied. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise."

"You…gave…blood for me…" he said, slurring words together, though their meaning was still the same.

She nodded and kissed his nose, softly. "Of course I did. You need it." His hand tightened in her grip, acknowledging her words. "Whatever you needed I would have given it. Anything and all that I have, I would have given it to save you."

He sighed and his breath brushed his cheeks. He didn't say anything else, but a sense of calmness seemed to wash over him, and Tenten knew that he understood what she had said at a deeper level than words could ever express.

* * *

For the record I do appreciate constructive criticism! Believe me I know these little works are not perfect, so if you see anything (even just a word like then/than switchup) let me know! I fly through these things because I see them in my head and if I don't get them down fast enough I might forget details! Sometimes my typing suffers for it.

Thanks guys :)


	10. 91 - Drowning

Prequel: Day 92

Sequel: Day 87

Nice short one down the same lines as the last three or so short stories. Next one we'll get away from this sadness, I promise!

Sorry for the length. I'm running on very little sleep right now, but more is on the horizon!

Enjoy! :)

 **Day Ninety-One** – 18 November 2017

 **Prompt** – Drowning

 **Summary** – Neji faces death, drowning, pain...he faces everything.

 **Notes** – Same lines as day 92

 **Word Count** – 720

* * *

 **Drowning**

He was drowning.

There was no other adequate explanation for what he was experiencing.

It wasn't like he was drowning in water. He could swim; it was an essential skill for a shinobi. He'd been taught the tools to survive in water. He hadn't been taught the tools to survive your own _traitorous_ body, when your lungs filled with your own blood and there was no breath to take, just choking and coughing and _drowning._

He hadn't been taught to endure excruciating physical pain.

For him, those were his two realities, drowning and pain. Little existed beyond them. There was no time, no earth or sky or fear or hope. Just drowning and pain.

There was an eternity spent submerged in those realities. It could have been a second or a lifetime, the length of his stay did not matter. Time did not matter. _Nothing else mattered._

Then a third reality made itself very well-known next to the other two: Death. Though to him, it wasn't some dark despair of the unknown; he wasn't afraid of the looming, smothering blackness that slowly enveloped his consciousness. It seeped into every corner of his being, around and beneath drowning and pain until it swallowed them as well.

Death was peaceful. Death was a release. Its touch was soft and cool and such a welcome contrast to the stabbing, burning agony of pain and the desperation and choking of drowning. It was _welcome_ to him.

Now, beyond Death, nothing else mattered.

 _Wait._

His body seized even as he remembered something that did matter, something that was far more precious to him than anything else. Death was something that directly countered that.

 _Tenten._

In a delirious rush pain and drowning returned, but so did time. So did the sky and the earth and the wind. He felt them all, a myriad of realities rushing to his senses that it seemed that they'd overwhelm him in their mad rush to be recognized. He felt them all.

Warmth from another body flooded into his, and Death retreated, though its presence demanded to be felt. It lurked in the corner of his mind even as he forced his eyes open, trying to focus on the wheeling trees as they whirled by. He was moving fast, but Death stayed.

She was holding him. He knew that, he could tell now just through her touch that it was _her._ Tenten, his reality, everything that mattered.

Pain and drowning assaulted him again and he cried out for relief. She said something to him and he nodded, though he didn't hear her. Her voice seemed to chase everything else away.

Death remained.

 _Hold onto her, focus on her,_ he thought, and tried to push everything else away. But those sensations were slippery, and they slipped around his mental barriers like water through sand. And they seemed to be growing stronger with every second.

And still, Death remained.

Every one of her steps fueled pain and drowning and Death until every reality was once again washed away but them. Them and Tenten, who acted like an anchor to the earth, who reminded him just who he was and what mattered to him. Without her guidance he would have long passed into the void.

And even then, Death remained. And Death would not be denied.

Pain and drowning grew ever more prevalent to the point where they ground his consciousness with their agony. He couldn't escape what was in his own mind. He felt himself cry out for relief again, though he was unsure if any sounds escaped his throat.

Then Death seemed to swell and encompass pain and drowning and Tenten and everything else.

In the end, Death wasn't a separate thing from the other realities. It was _everything._

He'd resigned himself to his fate when he felt free from those earthly burdens, but then a bright light stabbed through the thick inevitability of Death.

"Neji!"

Her voice.

 _Tenten._

It was a lifeline, an island in a storm, his savior, and he clung to the sound of his name on her lips like a dying man who was offered salvation. Death pressed on him, tried to loosen his grip, throw him aside and fold him into its depths again, but he would not relent.

He would survive, he would endure.

For her.


	11. 90 - Triangle

Thank god I got a prompt that wasn't heavy and sad and depressing!

Found the definition (among other obscene definitions for the same word) for triangle as the perfect three-way friendship, aka team Gai. Let's be real.

This story is based on personal experience which I found to be absolutely hilarious.

Drunk Lee FTW.

Also if you read, please drop me a comment! I'd like to see how I'm doing and if y'all are enjoying the stories. Please :)

Enjoy!

 **Day Ninety** – 19 November 2017

 **Prompt** – Triangle

 **Summary** – Team Gai is the best.

 **Notes** – Modern AU, everyone's early 20s, in London for a vacation.

 **Word Count** – 2132

* * *

 **Triangle**

"Did you know, the term "triangle" can colloquially refer to three compatriots who are perfect for each other in every way?" Lee beamed at his two friends as they walked down the sidewalk, looking for a pub to get a bite to eat.

"I didn't know that," Tenten replied. "Why a triangle?"

"Because, dear Tenten, nobody wants to be a square, and if three people are a triangle it's the best possible combination and no one wants to ruin it."

"Because then they'd be a square."

"Indeed, Neji!" Lee hung his arms around the shoulders of his two companions, grinning like an idiot who'd figured out the greatest secret of the universe.

"So we're a triangle, is what you're saying," Neji looked over at Lee even as he laughed.

"That is exactly what I am saying! We are perfect for each other!"

"Well, you're not wrong," Tenten pulled out her phone to check their location on the map. "We should be close. Everyone still wanting the classic fish n' chips? It's a London staple."

Before Neji could raise his hand and say something, Lee surged forward and made a fist, punching it in the air. "There is no way we are leaving London without eating its classic dish!"

Even though Neji was about to remind Lee (as he did every time, it seemed) that he didn't indulge in junk food, he let his hand drop and sighed in exasperation. Who was he to try to temper his friend's enthusiasm? It was true, Lee got a bit overbearing at times, but for him he always made an effort to include him in everything did, including autumn trips to London, apparently.

When Lee ducked rushed ahead and ducked into the pub that they were destined for, Tenten bumped him with her elbow and smiled at him. "He's a little nuts, isn't he?"

Neji adjusted the beanie on his head and tucked an errant strand of hair behind his shoulder. "It's just Lee. You know how he is." She weaved her arm with his and leaned her head on his shoulder, her pink cheeks and nose standing out brightly in the dreary afternoon. He blinked his icy eyes and snuck a quick kiss on her forehead before they too entered the pub.

It was rather quiet inside, given the tourist season was now at an end, and the barkeep welcomed them in thick Cockney and told them to sit where they liked. Of course, Lee had already seated himself at a window overlooking the river and was patiently waiting for their arrival.

"You have to order food and drinks at the bar. London is very big on ciders, so everyone should order one with their dinner!" Lee exclaimed.

"We will, Lee," Tenten laughed. "Don't worry, we're not going to miss out on the London experience."

Neji chuckled under his breath as Lee bounded to the bar and began animatedly speaking with the barkeep, snips of their conversation echoing throughout the room. Neji shrugged out of his overcoat and rolled up the sleeves on his shirt and straightened his vest. "I feel so odd going to a bar dressed like we're going to meet the Queen," he commented to Tenten.

"Well Lee wouldn't let us go back to the room and change, so we didn't have a choice," she said. She was dressed in slacks and a nice shirt and was brushing drops of rain off her pants. "The play was phenomenal though, I really enjoyed it."

"I agree," he replied, and offered his hand to hold as they also made their way up to the bar to order. Tenten ordered their seasonal pumpkin cider (which Neji wrinkled his nose at, he _hated_ pumpkin) and he'd ordered a pear cider, something much more palatable.

Lee was furiously downing his own mug when they sat back down. _Damn, he's just so intense with everything,_ Tenten thought.

"Slow down, Lee, or we're going to have to drag you to the subway after we're done."

"In London they call it the "tube," Neji." Lee retorted. "Also, I promise I can hold my liquor."

"We know you can't," Tenten said flatly.

Lee laughed because he most definitely knew that he couldn't hold his liquor either, but they were on vacation! A vacation with their best friends who they'd been inseparable from since they were twelve years old in school. They'd followed each other through high school and college and were now celebrating their graduation and the start of new lives.

"We'll take care of him, Ten." Neji told her. "We are on vacation, after all. Even a lightweight like Lee has to enjoy himself somehow."

"You take that back!" Lee shouted, but Neji only leaned back and smirked.

"You drink one mug of that stuff and you'll be done for the night. It'll take me at least four to get to that same point, Lee."

"You are wrong! I swear that I will match you drink-for-drink tonight!"

"Guys, I don't think that's a great idea," Tenten spoke up softly. _Why am I always the voice of reason here?_

"You won't keep up," Neji retorted, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Then I dare you to get as drunk as I will be after this drink! You won't!"

This struck a chord in Neji; Tenten saw the expression in his face. His eyebrows quirked as he tried to ignore the challenge, but Lee was always going on about how Neji was his rival and that he was one day going to surpass him in terms of money and status and education. That rivalry spanned every facet of their friendship, down to drinking, it seemed.

"You guys are going to kill me…" she sighed when Neji grinned and clacked his mug against Lee's.

"You're on, buddy," he said, and promptly took a handful of huge draughts out of his own cider.

When the crispy fish and chips were placed on the table, Lee was well on his way to blacking out, and Neji had finished two mugs and was halfway through a third. It seemed to be a gargantuan effort to finish the food and Tenten didn't think they even tasted what they ate (whenever she was drinking she couldn't taste anything, anyways). By the time the plates were cleared away, Lee had managed to work halfway through a second mug and Neji had drowned five.

"You two are going to be the end of me," she grumbled as her companions stumbled out into the street without their coats, Neji tugging on Lee's cashmere sweater and tugging loose his tie. Neji's vest had somehow become unbuttoned and one sleeve had slipped down to his wrist.

"Thank you," Tenten called as she gathered their things and prepared herself to herd them onto the subway.

"Tenten!" Neji beamed at her. "Thank you for m- coat!" He slurred the sentence as he took his jacket and hat from her and struggled to figure out where the arm holes were.

Lee slouched against the building, cheeks flushed and eyes wide. "Tenten! Look at the _bridge!"_ He pointed to the London bridge which stared down disapprovingly at them. "It's so _huge!"_

"I know, Lee. Get your jacket on so we can go back to the room." She shoved his coat in his direction and he draped it over his shoulders, not even trying to put the garment on.

Tenten grabbed Neji by the hand and wrapped an arm around Lee and made her way to the nearest station, laughing to herself as she watched Lee and Neji stumble along drunkenly over the cobblestones. They had to slouch against the wall of the train as they rode the handful of stops to their rented apartment. By then, both Lee and Neji were singing Christmas carols (of all things!) obnoxiously down the neighborhood street, and no amount of begging would get them to shut up.

"Get inside you two," Tenten said, and herded them to the door. Lee made it over the threshold successfully, but Neji managed to catch the lip of his oxfords on the frame and fell face-first into the foray. On the way down he caught his cheek on the corner of the baseboards, and he came away numbly holding his nose as blood dripped down his jaw into his shirt.

"Christ, Neji, really?" Tenten grumbled as she grabbed a paper towel to hold to his cheek, handing it down to him where he still sat on the floor. Lee was in hysterics, pointing and laughing and hardly able to contain his mirth.

"Shut up, ass." Neji grumbled even as he shook with his own laughter.

"Oh Neji, you looked ridiculous!" Lee doubled over with another fit of laughter as Tenten approached with a small first aid kit.

"Let me see it," she told him, and took his hand away from the gash.

"Kiss him, Tenten!" Lee chanted in the background still reveling in hilarity. She _tsked_ her tongue as her cheeks flamed. They'd never kissed in front of someone else.

"I'm looking at his face, Lee," she snapped. The cut was small and didn't look particularly deep, thankfully. "I don't think it'll need stitches, but you definitely need a bandage on that."

"I'll give you something to bandage," Neji said rather jokingly as he placed his hands behind his head, trying to puff his chest out.

"Shove off, Neji," Tenten said, though she was smiling at his antics. In a few deft movements she'd covered the cut with a couple steri-strips and taped a square of gauze firmly against them. "You'll probably have a bruise in the morning, if I had to guess."

"Kiss it better?" He pouted, sticking his lip out, and she gave him a playful slap on the chest.

"Lee, where are you?" She asked. The answer came when a series of heavy thumps came from his room, and Tenten sighed and stood. "Go get your pajamas on, I'll be right back."

Lee had managed to turn himself upside down between the bed and the wall wearing nothing but his underwear. "I need help, please!" He screamed.

"Quiet down, Lee!" She told him as she wrapped her arms around his torso and hauled him onto the sheets. "Honestly, how did you do that?"

Lee wobbled and laughed to himself as he tried to slide a pair of flannel pants on, but was met with limited success. He could hardly sit up without assistance, much less dress himself. It was a miracle that he'd managed to get out of his clothing in the first place.

"Let me help you, idiot," she said as she helped him hike his pants up over his hips while Lee fell into the bed and looked drunkenly at the ceiling, still giggling to himself.

"You're the best, dear Tenten," he said, and gave her the goofiest smile she'd ever seen. It was then that she remembered just how much she cared for him and why they were best friends.

"I know I am," she replied. "I'm going to go help Neji."

"Give him a big smooch for me!" He chided!"

Tenten blushed and frowned. "I don't th-"

"The party's just arrived, bitches!" Neji careened into the room, shirtless in his own pajama pants, hair flying everywhere as he landed right next to Lee, who burst into a fit of renewed laughter at the sight of Neji flying through the air. The impact nearly tossed Lee onto the floor again, and as Tenten stood to leave (and hopefully distance herself from any sort of drunken tomfoolery) Neji grabbed her arm and hauled her down into the jumble of limbs and hair. They were both howling with laughter and though Tenten was initially rather irked, she immediately began to laugh with them, tousling and roughhousing with them.

When they'd calmed down (mostly because Lee thought he was going to puke), she went and changed into her pajamas and grabbed two glasses and filled them with water. One she left on Neji's nightstand in their room, and the other she carried to Lee's.

They'd somehow fallen asleep sprawled across the bed, mouths wide open. Tenten shook her head but was still smiling when she set the glass down and went to turn the lights off. When she poked Neji to help him to their room he only pulled her down with him again, between him and Lee.

"Cuddles," he said, and wrapped her arm around him, even as Lee turned and draped his arm over her.

"I love you guys," Lee mumbled under his breath, and Tenten tucked her head into the thick hair at the base of Nejis neck, holding tight to them both as they fell asleep.

Lee was right. The three of them were most definitely a triangle.

* * *

Go team triangle!


	12. 89 - Through the Fire

As someone from Colorado who misses the mountains terribly, this one was nice to write. And holy shit can I just date modern Neji, please? That'd be great kthanxbye

Enjoy! :) and leave a comment if you drop in! I love to hear how I'm doing and if I can change anything!

 **Day Eighty-Nine** – 20 November 2017

 **Prompt** – Through the Fire

 **Summary** – Nejiten + Camping = Wholesome goodness

 **Notes** – Modern AU, apparently Neji drives a Subaru. And wears glasses.

 **Word Count** – 978

* * *

 **Through the Fire**

"Tent's set up, Tenten," Neji poked his out from around the flap, hair hanging haphazardly in his face, smiling like he'd just done something incredibly important.

"Thanks, hun," Tenten gave him a quick kiss. "The foil packets are almost done and the fire's going. We'll be squared away for tonight."

Neji stepped outside and put his beanie back on, pulling it down over his ears against the cold. Even in the summertime the Rockies were always bitterly cold at night, and since dusk was approaching the temperature had rapidly dropped. Out across the alpine lake, everything was calm. There were a few croaks from bullfrogs in the marshy parts and some hoots and calls of night birds, but there was no wind and no clouds to obscure their view.

They'd hiked up onto a hidden plateau earlier that day, away from the main thoroughfare and large campgrounds, trading convenience for peace and quiet. Camping was much more enjoyable when there weren't screaming kids running about when you were trying to enjoy the scenery.

As colors of the sky turned from red to purple to deep blue, they tended the fire and their dinners which warmed on the grate above the flames. Their careful watch let the fire grow to a decent size and its warmth was more than welcomed as the night air began to bite.

"They should be ready now," Tenten said, sliding the foil packs onto a plate and cutting them open. The smell of potatoes, onions, sausage, and eggs mingled with the scent of woodsmoke.

"Oops," Neji said sheepishly. "I guess I set the breakfast ones on the fire."

Tenten giggled and kissed him again. "I think breakfast for dinner sounds lovely."

They sat next to each other and draped the heavy quilt they'd packed in Neji's Impreza and hauled all the way up here around their shoulders, leaning on each other as they ate their dinners with plastic forks. The cresent moon had just begun to rise, and the rugged, snow-capped peaks ahead were bathed in a faint silver halo. A strip of light reflected off the water.

"This is great," he breathed. "I don't need anything more than this."

"I hear you," Tenten said as she shuffled to sit in front of him, draping his arms around her as she had the blanket. "Nothing beats being out here with a tremendous view and good company."

The fire crackled softly amidst the singing of crickets, and all was calm.

The world grew darker and darker, and the first few pinpoints of light shone through the fabric of the sky. More and more stars emerged through the night, until the entirety of the heavens seemed to be littered with millions of stars, shining clear and bright over their heads.

Tenten leaned her head back into the crook of his neck, rough wool hat slipping down over her eyes. Neji chuckled softly, and said, "let me help you with that." As he pushed the fabric back to where it belonged, he leaned into kiss her cheek, and she gasped as his nose poked her temple.

"Your nose is cold!" She said, and he kissed her again and again, spurring her into a fit of laughter at the sensation of his cold skin pressing into hers.

"It's cold outside, Tenten," he said finally, pushing his glasses back up onto the bridge of his nose; they'd become unseated during his attack. "Obviously my nose is going to be cold."

"Rude," she mock pouted.

"Put that lip back in your mouth before I do something with it," he warned playfully, even as she shoved him back onto the ground and leaned over his chest. "Okay, you got me beat."

"That's what I thought," she said, and curled against him as they both stared skyward at the stars, pulling the blanket over their bodies. The fire continued crackling, casting shadows over their skin and flushing them with waves of warmth. An owl hooted nearby. They listened and watched and said nothing. A moment like this did not need words, and a profound sense of peace overcame them.

This is why they wanted to come out here. Somehow, they always found themselves and each other when they were away from their normal, hectic lives.

"It's so surreal, it makes you feel so small," Neji whispered.

"I know," she replied just as quietly. "I just can't describe it, but being surrounded by a place like this is just so comforting."

"It's like the feeling you get when you meditate, but it's even more concentrated." He took a deep breath, holding the scent of smoke and grass and pine in his lungs before releasing it. "Even the air is sobering."

She nodded, but didn't need to reply. She knew what he meant because she felt it too. It was something you just couldn't put into words. It just felt _right._

Through the warmth of the fire they watched the stars spin and dance and counted how many shooting stars they counted in the sky. After some time they entwined their fingers together and moved closer, sharing body heat as well as each other's company.

Late into the night (there was no telling what the actual time was since they'd left their clocks and watches in the car) when the fire had burned down to coals and Tenten had dozed off, Neji began to feel the pull of sleep. So he sat up and nudged her awake, urging her quietly into the tent, and as he pulled the blanket in after them and zipped them into their bed for the night, he stole one last glimpse at the mountains and the water, then looked down on his fiancé and the way she'd curled up on the mattress, and he smiled, knowing that there was nothing more that he could want for in the world.

* * *

Again please please PLEASE comment if you read! I love your feedback :)


	13. 88 - Pain

I couldn't bring myself to write a heavy, sad, bloody story to go with "pain" today because the pain train is already rolling through in a few other topics. So this one is much more comical.

Poor Neji. But this was hysterical to write.

Enjoy and leave a comment! :)

 **Day Eighty-Eight** – 21 November 2017

 **Prompt** – Pain

 **Summary** – Somebody snuck ghost pepper powder in Neji's ramen…

 **Notes** – n/a

 **Word Count** – 1287

* * *

 **Pain**

Everyone knew he didn't do well with spicy foods. After that _disaster_ against the Kuroski family and that _blasted_ Curry of Life, it had rapidly become common knowledge. Embarrassing, common knowledge.

And, as was the wont of young men, the pranks were soon to follow. Neji withdrew from most but his team while Naruto was away, focusing on his training and his skills so that upon Naruto's return, he would be able to hold his own. And thankfully, the pranks died down, although he had to keep a careful eye around his food when the shinobi all went out to lunch as a group. Somebody was liable to put hot sauce or something of the like into anything he ate, down to his tea.

When Naruto did come back, it seemed like the entire village wanted to party, though really it was his friends who had enough enthusiasm for the rest of the villagers. Everyone wanted to take him out for food or drinks, and even though Neji was excited to see him (though he would never show it), he knew that he should wait a bit until he invited him to ramen. It was unlikely that he would be free for several days.

When he mentioned taking Naruto out to Tenten and Lee, word quickly spread of another gathering and soon several others of the Konoha Eleven had so graciously invited themselves to come along too.

When all was said and done, himself, Tenten, Lee, Kiba, Shikamaru, and Konohamaru met at Ichiraku to treat Naruto to a bowl or two of ramen.

 _I'm going to have to watch these guys,_ he thought sourly, remembering the last time he went out to eat with Kiba. His eyes watered in sympathy at the memory.

He strategically placed himself at the bar with Lee and Tenten between the rest. He trusted the two of them to stave off any ill-conceived attempts to spoil his meal with anything spicy.

Shortly thereafter everyone else arrived, and after a boisterous round of greetings and back-slapping, they sat back down and swapped stories.

Really, Naruto talked while the rest of them listened and interjected. Lee nearly started a battle of wills three different times and it felt like it was always loud enough to damage their eardrums with the volume of their laughter, but it was good to be around friends, good friends who your could trust anything to.

"You look stiff," Tenten leaned over and commented to him.

"I am," he admitted under his breath, "because I know this crew and how they like to put spicy things in my food because I've got a baby mouth."

"Don't be so paranoid," she laughed as she brushed the top of his legs with her fingertips, over his thigh, hidden under the bartop. His cheeks reddened and his vision narrowed to her face as she blinked at him, innocently.

"You're evil," he murmured as he turned away. "You know what you do to me."

She smirked at him and leaned back, crossing her arms over her chest. "I know."

"I'll get you back for that," he vowed as he picked his chopsticks up again and hunched over his ramen, scowling.

On his next bite his mouth erupted in fire. His entire face flushed crimson and sweat immediately sprang up on his forehead as the inferno spread to his nose and his throat.

"Hot!" He screamed as he shoved away from the bar, furiously fanning his face with his hands. Naruto and Kiba erupted into howls; it was apparent that his torment was their fault.

"Oh Neji!" Kiba laughed, "you should see your face!"

"Idiot! You know that I can't handle spicy foods!" Tenten held a glass of water out to him as he collapsed to her knees in the street, tears streaming down his face. "I'm going to pass out."

A second later, he did, collapsing pitifully onto his face as the rest of the company gasped in shock.

"Oh shit, he actually passed out," Kiba muttered as they rolled Neji over onto his back. Tenten took the glass she was holding and poured it over his face.

"Neji-kun!" Lee called as his companion sputtered back into consciousness. "Are you okay?"

"Yes," Tenten followed up quietly, "are you okay?"

Tears still spilling down his cheeks, Neji held onto Tenten and drank whatever water was left in the glass, gasping and groaning in pain. "Kami help me," he whispered.

The whole street had now stopped to stare at the scene, adding insult to injury. Neji wasn't someone who liked attention in the first place, and now he was down on his knees, rolling in the dirt, red-faced and crying for relief from the burning sensation in his mouth and nose and _everywhere._

"Oh crap, Neji, sorry man," Naruto said. "We thought about pulling the prank for old time's sake, but we didn't think it would go like this."

"You _idiots_ know I don't handle spicy food well at all," he spit, glaring at the whole lot. "My whole face is on fire."

Tenten gave him a napkin off the table and a few sugar packets to wipe his eyes and take away the burn, and he took them without complaint. He dabbed at his eyes and nose even as he ripped the packets open to pour the contents on his tongue.

"I've not ever been in this much pain in my life," he gasped, taking gulps of water from yet another glass that Tenten handed him.

"We didn't know it was going to be that bad," Kiba continued. "Sorry."

Neji got to his feet and brushed himself off, rearranging his hair so it sat back over his shoulders in a semblance of control. "I'm leaving," he said shortly. "Naruto, good to see you again."

And he turned around and left, at his wits end. Just when he thought things might've been normal!

"Neji!" Tenten called and followed him down the street, ignoring the calls of the rest of their company.

"I'm sorry, Ten," he said as he kept moving, "I can't handle that right now. You know how I am with spicy foods."

"I understand," she said and put her hand on his shoulder. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

He sighed and his shoulders hunched just a bit, enough to be noticeable. "I'm okay, thank you."

"Hey," she pulled him to a stop, and smiled at him. "I think I've got some milk at home, that'll help take the rest of the burn away. You want to go?"

Despite his still-smarting eyes, he returned her smile and nodded. "Please…it hurts so bad."

She wrapped a hand around his hips and led him forward. "Afterwards, I'll get you get your payback, if you're interested."

"You know I always am," he replied. "Though let's be careful. I can't imagine this spicy stuff would feel good…y'know…" he make a vague motion downwards.

"I know what you mean, Neji. There's always more ways to have fun, don't you worry." She looked ahead and then back behind them before stealing a quick kiss, and her lips and tongue immediately started to tingle.

"Oooh, they got you good," she said quietly.

"Please don't remind me, and let's hurry," Neji said flatly, and they continued to her apartment to find his relief in a pint of milk and then in Tenten herself, laughing when she jokingly swore his lips left burning marks wherever he touched her afterwards.

"Maybe," he whispered as she curled into him some hours later, "if it means I get to be with you like this, I could handle ghost pepper powder every so often."

"I doubt it," she giggled, and then kissed him again.

* * *

I love these spicy, spicy kids ;)

Leave a comment if you enjoyed please! I love reading them, it makes my day!


	14. 87 - Food

Prequel: Day 91

Sorry for the no-post yesterday! I was travelling all day for Thanksgiving, so you know how that goes.

We'll see where this pain train goes, or if it's reached its final destination.

Working on more updates, stay tuned!

 **Day Eighty-Seven** – 23 November 2017

 **Prompt** – Food

 **Summary** – Neji made it through the operation to save his life after fighting Kidomaru. Now what?

 **Notes** – n/a

 **Word Count** – 1473

* * *

 **Food**

By some miracle, he'd survived the healing resuscitation regeneration technique. They'd told her and Hiashi that there was no other option, and that the jutsu had a low success rate, and that all they could do was standby and wait.

Always to _wait._

It was the waiting that drove her crazy. Especially when she sat across from the stoic Hyuga clan leader who didn't seem to be the least disturbed by the situation. She knew that he was; the crease between his eyebrows was more than enough of an indication, but he always just had this strange indifferent air about him. She fidgeted and paced and swung kunai between her fingers to ease her worry. Hiashi did nothing.

It took hours, days, _years,_ before Shizune emerged from the emergency suite to explain the situation, and when she said that he should make a full recovery now that the damage the arrows had done to his body had been healed, Tenten fell to her knees and wept with relief.

Shizune took off down the hallway to report to Lady Tsunade, leaving Hiashi alone with Tenten once again. He approached slowly in his odd, meticulous way.

"Tenten," he said, offering her a hand to pull her back to her feet. "Thank you for bringing him home and what you've done for him. I was informed that you played a critical role in his survival." He placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled.

"Neji is a good friend, if it had been anyone else I would have done the same," she replied, wiping her eyes.

"He speaks highly of you," Hiashi continued, and at that statement he fixed her with a peculiar sort of stare, and she knew Neji's comments had revealed his feelings for her to his uncle, even if he hadn't intended to do so.

"I speak of him the same way. You get to know your team as family," she turned to look at the lit sign of the suite, and the low hum it emitted quieted as it was shut off. He would be coming out soon.

"We hope to see more of you, Tenten," Hiashi said pointedly. "A stellar ninja such as yourself is always welcome within the Hyuga compound." Another pointed look, and Tenten understood what he meant. "Stay with him, please," he continued. "I must return home to spread the news and to attend to the affairs of the clan, and I will return when everything is taken care of."

"I will," Tenten replied, and just as she was going to add more, the doors swung open and several medical nin emerged pushing a gurney.

"He won't be active for some time yet, since we used a sedative before the procedure, but within an hour he should be awake," one of them said, staving off the inevitable questions. "He's not all the way out of the woods yet, as he's got some significant internal damage from the impacts, but it's nothing taking it easy in the hospital and properly resting won't cure."

Hiashi nodded, put his hand on Tenten's shoulder one more time, and said "thank you," and placed a kind of elastic band in her palm, discreetly. When she looked at it, he said "he'll want something to cover his forehead," and she saw a flash of pain in his eyes. Before she could say anything else, Hiashi turned away and left, leaving her starting at his back as the group of medics walked down the hallway the opposite direction.

She turned to follow them, heeding Hiashi's request.

Tenten trailed the group of medics at a distance, not knowing if it was appropriate to try and approach. In short time they had him in a room, placed a few sensors around his body, and then turned to her.

"He can have ice and some of these crackers," they handed her a few plastic-wrapped packets and she fumbled with them and the headband, "when he wakes up, if he's interested. Nothing else for the time being. We'll run a few other tests when he wakes up and we will go from there."

Tenten nodded blankly, clutching the her cargo as they left the room, and it was just him and her. Machines beeped quietly behind him, but everything was in stark contrast to his arrival but a few hours ago.

This time, there wasn't the fear, the terror, of losing him. He was whole, breathing, alive. That was all she could ask for. She approached cautiously, not knowing why, but eventually found herself pulling up a chair and sitting next to his side.

A thick bandage was pressed against his right cheek, but other than his curse mark and the bandage, there was nothing to mar his face. Her eyes travelled down his throat where she noticed a few streaks of grime, then down to what she could see of his chest. Thick bruising had blossomed up from his left shoulder and over his collarbone. The edge of a white, ropy scar peeked out from the edge of his gown, the place where the arrow had gone through his body. Though he was covered with a blanket from the edge of his chest downwards, Tenten imagined similar bruises were on his right hip.

His usual bandages on his right arm and leg were gone, and his fingers and knuckles were torn and bruised from fighting. The way he fought it was a wonder how he didn't always have hands that looked like that.

She breathed a sigh of relief. He was okay. Pale and bruised, but okay.

A wave of exhaustion crashed down on her then, and she realized it had been nearly thirty-six hours since she last slept. She'd returned from her mission then was sent right back out to rescue him. That paired with her injuries sustained on her mission and the blood she gave to save him, it was no wonder that she was dead on her feet.

With the crackers and his headband still in her hand, she laid her head down next to his body on the bed, and fell asleep.

It was deep and silent, her sleep. She didn't remember anything beyond the comforting blackness. So it was a shock when she felt someone rubbing her back, dragging her up from her slumber through layer after layer of sleep.

"Tenten," her name was whispered, and she sat upright quickly, heart jumping in her chest. The sound of her own name had startled her.

Neji was awake, leaning against the bed which he'd elevated to sit up, and was gently rubbing her shoulder to wake her.

"I'm sorry," he continued, just as softly.

"How are you feeling?" She asked. He looked worn and haggard, with dark circles under his eyes. He moved slowly to avoid aggravating anything that hurt, but his eyes themselves were bright, and he was talking without much difficulty.

"Everything hurts," he said flatly. "But I'm okay, I think."

She took his hand and pressed a kiss to his palm, relief washing through her body. "Thank the gods," she said. "I was terrified that you were going to die."

"I know," he said, looking down at her hands closed around his. "But…you brought me back."

She nodded. "Of course, what else would I have done?"

He looked at her again and smiled lopsidedly. "I don't know, but thank you."

She leaned over to kiss the center of his forehead, on the curse mark which stood prominently on his skin. "Anytime." Then she offered the crackers, albeit slightly crushed, to him. "Are you hungry?"

He eyed them distastefully. "Not particularly, but I have to eat something to get better." He took them from her hands, and she gave him the headband as well. His eyes widened slightly.

"Hiashi gave it to me for you," she explained.

"My uncle was here?" He asked, incredulity in his voice.

"Of course he was, he came as soon as he got the news that you were hurt," she paused. "That's a surprise to you, that he came?"

Neji opened one of the packets and brought a crumble to his lips. "I suppose I'm just not used to the head family caring for someone like me."

"He does care, I promise." She smiled then. "Do you want me to put that on for you?"

He nodded and handed the dark band back to her, and she deftly secured it over his forehead, not before kissing the mark again. She arranged dark locks into a semblance of his usual hairstyle, then sat back to watch him.

"Thank you for the crackers," he said softly. "And for everything else."

"Like I said Neji, anytime. You would have done the same for me."

He leaned over to kiss her then, and there was not another spoken word between them.

* * *

Working on an update that was requested for nightmares. It's coming in the next few updates :)

Happy thanksgiving everyone!


	15. 86 - Seeing Red

I had a mild migraine yesterday (thus the no-post) which was obviously the inspiration for this little story. Thankfully mine aren't that bad, but man, they're bad enough!

Currently updating from the airport...will be home tonight and back on my regular schedule - which means regular posts for everyone else!

Hope everyone had a great holiday :)

Review if you haven't already!

 **Day Eighty-Six** – 24 November 2017

 **Prompt** – Seeing Red

 **Summary** – Hyuga are prone to migraines…

 **Notes** – Shippuden era

 **Word Count** – 1261

* * *

 **Seeing Red**

Neji pulled his hands up to his temples and tried to massage away the deep-seated ache behind his eyes.

"You okay?" Tenten asked, shrugging her pack over her shoulder.

He shook his head and winced. "I don't know," he said. "I've got this weird swirling thing in my vision and my head hurts."

"Did you overuse your Byakugan on the mission?" She tugged his drawstring back off his shoulder, looking at him in concern.

"I didn't use it any more than I usually do," he replied.

"Well," she paused, thinking. "It was a long mission. Could just be fatigue."

"I'm not all that tired." They continued walking in silence down the main street of Konoha. He progressively got worse as they walked, and Tenten's concern grew.

"I'll walk you home," she said firmly, and he didn't argue. That was uncharacteristic of him not to complain about being walked home.

"I need your shoulder," he mumbled, reaching out for her. "It's getting worse."

She took his hand and guided it up so he could grasp the fabric around her neck. "Something's wrong," she said.

"I know."

When they reached the Hyuga compound, he was stumbling along, complaining of severe pain and saying he couldn't see. Hiashi met them at the gate; no doubt he'd seen Tenten nearly dragging his nephew to the doors.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I don't know," she explained, continuing to walk after bowing awkwardly to the clan leader, "he was okay when we walked into the village, then he had a sudden onset of pain in his head and weird swirling patterns in his vision. They've progressed significantly since then, he can't see anymore."

Hiashi grunted knowingly. "It sounds like a migraine," he said. "Some Hyuga fighters are prone to them due to the strain the Byakugan puts on the eyes. Those are typical symptoms."

"What can I do to help?" Tenten looked at him, silently begging with her eyes.

Hiashi sighed. "There's not a lot to do besides getting him inside, getting some medicine into him, and letting it pass. I will make tea; caffeine helps too."

Tenten nodded and they parted ways. Neji had been silent through the whole exchange as he clung to her arm. "Please tell me we're almost at my room," he groaned.

"Almost, there's a step here, watch your toes," she practically had to drag him up the steps into the building, awkwardly pulling open the sliding panels to his room as she juggled his weight.

She led him to his mattress where he collapsed, hiding his face beneath his robes. "Everything's so bright and loud," he said softly.

Tenten set their belongings down on the floor and came to kneel at the edge of his bed. "I'm going to get you some ibuprofen," she said. "We'll get you some tea then you should just stay here until it's over."

"I don't know if I can keep anything down," he admitted, turning his face to look at her out of the corner of his eye. Veins stood out prominently on his forehead. "My stomach is churning."

She didn't say anything but stayed to watch him until Hiashi knocked quietly on the door.

"Are you sure that this is all I can do?" she asked as she gratefully accepted the tea and mugs from him. On the tray there was a handful of pills, rocking back and forth slightly with the motion of the exchange.

"Migraines are never pleasant," he replied. "It will pass in a few hours at most, but they're painful and debilitating." He looked over her shoulder at the dark form of his nephew slumped miserably in his bed. "If I knew another method to help him, I would. I have had my fair share of them myself, and it comes down to waiting for it to pass."

Tenten nodded tightly and thanked him for the tea. "I'll stay with him until it's over."

"You've done much for him, Tenten." He gave her the same pointed look that he'd been giving her for years now. "Thank you."

"You know how much he means to me, Hiashi-sama." She said quietly. He nodded, and when he pulled the door shut, everything went dark and quiet. Tenten sighed to herself as she held the tray with the tea and mugs, then turned to walk over to Neji.

"I have tea," she murmured. "Take some pain medication and drink some. Hiashi said it will help."

He said nothing but rolled over and accepted the cup and tablets she placed in his hands. "Can you bring my trashcan over here?" He asked. "If I'm going to be sick I don't want to have to get up and try to get to the bathroom when I can't see."

"Sure," she replied, and fetched the receptacle from the bathroom. "Hiashi said you just need to let it pass. There's not much else you can do."

"I'm seeing red spots now," he commented. "They're pulsing with the pain in my head."

"Do you want me to help you out of your shirt so you can get under the covers?"

He nodded feebly so she leaned over to undo the buttons that held his robe on his shoulders, then helped him under the blankets after sliding his sandals off his feet.

"Thank you," he whispered as he turned his head into his pillow.

She bent down to kiss his forehead gently, not speaking because she knew noise made his pain worse.

It was a couple hours before he stirred, blinking his eyes blearily. She'd sat at his desk in the corner, twirling a kunai and constantly looking over at him to make sure he was okay.

"How's your head?" she asked softly.

He rubbed his eyes. "I think it's passed," he replied, voice cracking. "It still hurts, but it's nowhere near where it was before."

She stood and grabbed a glass from his kitchen and filled it with water. He thanked her when she gave it to him along with another dose of ibuprofen.

"You look better," she remarked as she watched him drink.

"I think," he said between gulps, "I let myself get too dehydrated. Combined with the long and stressful mission and the altitude of the mountains, it probably got to me."

"I would agree," she replied. "Do you want anything else?"

"I have a few meat buns in the freezer," he said. "Can you grab me one please? Help yourself if you're interested too."

"Of course," she stood and did as he asked, defrosting a couple in the microwave as he stretched and flexed his limbs, judging the pain response he had from the motion.

"Here," she said as she handed him one of the buns wrapped in a napkin. "Eating might take the edge off the pain too."

"It'll help my stomach, at the least," he said, "although the nausea has calmed down a bit."

"Good."

They ate in companionable silence, Neji still wrapped in his blankets and Tenten sitting cross-legged on the foot of his bed.

"Thank you," he told her again as he handed her his napkin when she offered to throw the trash away. "You're honestly the best."

She smiled and laughed softly. "Apparently nobody's treated you right before me."

"I wouldn't know the difference. Either way," he pulled her down to him when she returned, "you're still the best."

"I think you're the best too, Neji." She curled herself around him as he settled back into the mattress, and they both fell asleep, holding onto each other for quiet and comfort.


	16. 85 - Spiral

I changed my username to match my DA account (you can find me on DA for some Nejiten artwork under the same name, SilverSalient. I have tons of mostly finished scenes from this story collection that I will be posting soon!)

This one went quite long, but it was a sort of emotion that I hadn't explored with them yet, though I've been here many times myself. War is an ugly thing man.

As someone in the military, I've had to learn how to cope with many emotions that come with losing people. Thankfully all my friends are still with me, but any loss in the service seems to be a blow. I imagine it's the same with these ninja.

Also I seem to enjoy putting Neji in very vulnerable positions, probably because we don't see him in very many situations like these. I find it much easier to write from his point of view; we're much more similar than Tenten and I am.

Read and review, hope everyone enjoys :)

 **Day Eighty-Five** – 26 November 2017

 **Prompt** – Spiral

 **Summary** – Nightmares and PTSD after the war are no joke. How do you cope with the loss and the guilt of thousands of people?

 **Notes** – AU where Neji's actually healed from the wood spike things that kill him in the actual show. Because I reject what happened and substitute my own version. Also Tenten's parents were killed in a previous conflict (since the show doesn't say anything about her parents I will do what I want with them, writer's freedom!)

 **Word Count** – 2111

* * *

 **Spiral**

 _Blood. There was always blood._

 _There were always bodies too, though these were less surprising to him than blood. Really, it was the fact that a body held so much blood that always surprised him._

 _He trod forward, feet slogging through blood-soaked grass. It squished under his sandals and seeped between his toes, causing his feet to slip in his shoes. With every moment, the blood grew thicker._

 _He paused and looked around. It was dark, but there was always a lot of movement. Many shinobi jumped and leaped and shouted to one another in the darkness, barely able to see each other beneath the thin light of the moon. A great beast, a horrendous, ugly thing, howled and writhed among the ninja, sweeping the earth with its massive hands, killing people and adding to the destruction._

 _He'd seen this before. Lately it was all he ever saw him his dreams._

 _Naruto stood behind the band of Hyuga warriors, Hinata among them. The ten-tails screeched, loosing its fury onto the field as it filled its maw with some sort of energy. Explosions followed soon afterwards; the projectiles flew from its mouth off into the distance, destroying entire cities. He was numb by this point; hundreds of people were dying, and he could only stand and watch. HQ was destroyed only moment after, though they were able to pass on information that was crucial to their success._

 _He knew what he had to do. Follow the plan, protect him._

 _The cutting sprigs that followed were always the worst._

 _They came from the heavens with a vengeance, blotting out what little light there was to be had. Several shinobi had means to protect themselves from the hail of projectiles, many others did not. Many others died._

 _Naruto released several attacks to protect the people around him, but in doing so depleted himself of what little chakra he had built up. He stumbled to his knees, even as the ten-tails locked onto him and launched another volley aimed directly for his heart. He saw Hinata leap between him and those projectiles, sacrificing herself to protect him._

 _In the dream, he still did his duty and launched himself in front of Naruto and Hinata, fulfilling obligations and desires to both of them, protecting them. He couldn't come to resent them; he loved them both, and it was not out of duty that he chose to die. It was for the bond they shared._

 _It still did not stop the impact from bursting through his body with the pain strong enough to dash every thought and feeling from his mind. For an infinite length of time, he knew nothing but excruciating agony._

 _And in the dream, he couldn't escape. No one came to save him, no one pulled him from the well of despair at his own death._

 _He needed to wake up._

 _Wake up._

 _Neji._

"Neji!"

"Wake up!"

He was being shaken by the shoulder rather violently. Consciousness and life flooded through him in a great wave, and he sat up with a jolt, gasping.

Tenten sat up leaning on her elbow, hand reaching for him as he shook with fear. His breath came in ragged heaves and sweat coated his body.

"Neji?" She asked softly, touching his shoulder as he slumped his head into his hands.

"They're getting worse," he whispered. "It's almost every night now."

She pulled him into her arms and let him curl into her chest like a small child. "I know…"

"I don't know why. I was saved. I am alive. Why does that scene keep playing in my mind?"

Her breath came low and even as she brought her fingertips up and down the length of his arm, soothing him. "I don't know. I have my nightmares too that I can't get away from. I don't know why I dream the things I dream."

"This is driving me insane," he admitted quietly, and at his confession he seemed to deflate. "I can't sleep at night, I can't do my work or train right without sleep, I can't progress without training and working. It's like a big downward spiral I can't get out of."

She pressed her lips to his forehead before replying. "I don't know how to help, I wish I did…"

"Why did they all die," he whispered, "and I lived? Why did I live?"

Tenten couldn't think of anything to say to him, so she remained silent. "I think," she said gently, after a moment, "that this may stem from a feeling of guilt."

"I think you're right," Neji replied, "but I don't know how to stop feeling so guilty for living."

"Have you grieved properly?"

He paused and thought for a moment before saying "I would guess that I haven't, although I don't know what it means to grieve properly."

"Okay," she whispered. "Do you want to walk somewhere?"

He pulled back to look at her, pain etched into the lines of his face. "Do you have somewhere in mind?"

She stood and offered her hand. "I do, and I think it might help."

Neji allowed her to pull him to his feet and hand him a pair of pants and a shirt. Glancing at the clock, he noted it was very early in the morning, but he wouldn't be going back to sleep tonight, and if she had an idea that might help it would be better than trying to wrestle his mind into submission for the rest of the night.

"It's raining outside," she murmured when she looked out the window. "Doesn't look too bad though."

He nodded silently and reached for the door, grabbing the umbrella hanging on the wall as he walked outside.

When she joined him, he put his arm around her and let her lead the way. They walked in silence.

The sound of the rain muted all other sound around them and blurred buildings and trees and walkways into murky blobs of color of in the darkness. A few street lamps illuminated the walkway through the mist, but they stood out as beacons against the night, barely holding it at bay. They walked from one island of light to the next.

When they reached their destination, he paused.

"The memorial?" he asked.

"Yes," Tenten replied, laying a hand on the thick slab of stone. "I come by to say hello to my parents sometimes. I feel like this memorial is a better connection to them than their headstones sometimes, since they died for the village." She reached up to touch two names engraved into the stone, both baring her last name. "I actually visit your father's name as well," she moved a handful of paces down, and touched another, familiar name. Neji followed her with the umbrella. "I like to thank him that I have you."

He smiled half-heartedly. "I don't think they've finished adding all the names on the stone from the war," he said.

She shook her head. "Many people died. They will get them on the memorial as quickly as they can."

He remained silent and stared at the characters as they stood stark and white against the black stone.

"You know," she continued softly. "I come here a lot because it centers me. When I look at the names, I think of what they died for, and that they wouldn't want me to feel guilty for living." She touched the names again. "I have a job as a shinobi, to protect my people. They did that, and I think that I'm still alive so that I can continue their work."

He reached out too and put his hand on an unfamiliar name, letting the rain wash over his palm.

"They wouldn't want me to be guilty. My parents would not want me to feel guilty for living." She said this with conviction, and he stiffened. Would his father approve of his feelings?

"I feel," he murmured, "like one of these names on the wall should be mine, and someone else's should've never been placed here."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why are you any less worthy of living?"

He was taken aback by her question. "Why am I…?"

She looked at him gently. "Everyone has their own story, Neji. Their own family and friends and lives that are either cut short or continue for many years. The only disservice we do for the dead is to sully their sacrifice by not living even though we're alive."

He looked at the wall, down the expanse of names of every shinobi who had died in service to their village. The wall spanned a great distance, so far that through the rain it was difficult to see the end. _So many names, so many lives._

"I asked if you had grieved properly because I think you're stuck," she said. "Stuck in the phase where the depth of the loss hits you and you wonder if it's even worth continuing on anymore." She put an arm around his waist even as he froze, hand still on the memorial. "Where you don't know why things happened the way they did, and you don't know how to carry on because the burden grinds you down beneath its weight."

She was right. He began to shake because the truth of her words resonated through his core.

"It takes time to understand that just because many people died, you deserve to keep living." She reached up to touch his father's name. "We all know what it means to be a shinobi. To protect the village. Sometimes we die to prevent war," she walked into the rain a couple paces down to lay her hands on the names of her parents, "and sometimes we die in war." She returned to him, hair kissed with drops of water. "That was their service."

He turned his head down as a tear slid down his cheek, ashamed for the first time since they were young to cry in front of her.

"We cannot feel guilty for surviving when it is our job to serve. We all fight for the same cause, and we all continue to fight for it even when others may die. Such is our profession." She faced him then, though he wouldn't meet her gaze. "Many shinobi have faced this guilt. Most notably your uncle." Another tear fell down Neji's cheek. "But he came to realize that your father made the choice himself, and that it would be directly against what he would have wanted if Hiashi continued to destroy his mental health with guilt over something that your father was proud to do."

She paused then, and the only sounds were the rain hitting the stone and his ragged breathing as he struggled to hold back sobs.

"There is nothing you could have done differently. Each shinobi knows the risks and fully accepts them. Just as you were prepared to die, so to were they. We cannot forget their sacrifice, but neither can we live our lives in a perpetual downward spiral of guilt asking ourselves why it wasn't us. That is why I brought you here."

He handed the umbrella to her and placed his other hand on the memorial, leaning heavily on the stone as his hair cascaded loosely down his shoulders. "My father," he whispered, "would be ashamed of me."

"He would have understood your pain," she said gently. "It is a part of who we are as shinobi. Sometimes it is difficult to see through, especially for someone who faced death and survived when many did not, but we must keep moving forward and remember who we are and what we do."

The sobs came then, heavy and wrenching, as he leaned against the stone. She put her hand on his back, silently letting him know that she was there as she held the umbrella over his head, but said nothing as his sobs were swallowed by the rain.

"I'm so sorry Tenten," he said. "I don't know why I didn't understand it before."

"I struggled with the same thing myself not too long ago. I actually chatted with Hiashi about it, and he said the same things I told you."

Neji stood up and wiped his eyes before turning to her. "I understand," he said, "though I think it will take time for it to settle in my mind."

"It will, but that's why I'm here," she took the hand he offered even as he touched his father's name again on the stone.

"Dad," he said softly, "I wish you could've met Tenten." He looked back at her and the corner of his lips rose. "I think you would've liked her."

She smiled back, and together they turned back for their apartment, hand in hand.

The rain quieted.

* * *

Side note: who thinks we'll see Neji in Boruto at some point? Given all the crazy shit that happened in Shippuden I would say that nothing's off the table for the writers...thoughts?


	17. 84 - Out (in the) Cold

_**RATED M FOR THIS ADDITION!**_

So...eight pages of smut and sexiness, anyone?

Gah, writing unsure, inexperienced Neji is such a pleasure but I feel like I don't do him justice! Poor kid!

The prompt was Out Cold, which didn't really fit with the smut I wanted to write tonight, so they're out in the cold instead.

Read and review, and do not fret, this will be continued in a later installment ;)

 **Day Eighty-Four** – 27 November 2017

 **Prompt** – Out (in the) Cold

 **Summary** – Neji and Tenten get caught in a snowstorm on the way to meet up with Lee and Gai Sensei. The only room left in the inn is one with a single bed, and their feelings for each other are new and fresh and wild. He's just too close, she's just too tempting…after years of tension, it all has to boil over at some point.

 **Notes** – Early Shippuden era, they're very aware of their feelings for each other but nothing has happened beyond occasional hand holding and a quick, awkward kiss (a different tale for a different time). SMUT.

 **Word Count** – 4130

* * *

 **Out in the Cold**

Unsurprisingly, the Land of Frost was very, very cold.

It wasn't necessarily the cold itself that was the problem. It was the wind that blew flecks of ice into their faces, burning their skin even as they tried to cover their mouths and noses with scarves. It was how the wind froze their joints, turning hands and feet into dumb, senseless clubs that wouldn't move under their command. It was the way the wind tossed snow into their shoes, soaking their feet and chilling their toes no numbness.

"How much farther?" Tenten asked shortly. "We're going to have to find shelter soon, if this wind keeps up. The sun's going down and with this weather, hypothermia is a concern."

"We're close," Neji replied. He reached up to knock a clod of ice that had grown onto the nearest bunch of hair; the way he had his scarf wrapped around his face, his breath was directed outward towards his ears, and the moisture collected onto his hair in the process. Tenten had similar clusters in her own hair. The only thing he could see of her were her eyes and the loose strands. The rest of her seemed to be comprised of thick fabric.

The blinding snow thickened as the sun fell; it was actively snowing now as opposed to the wind stirring what was left on the ground. _This is bad,_ he thought. _If we can't find somewhere to stay soon we'll be in real danger of freezing to death._

They trudged forward silently for a few more minutes, leaning into the wind as it howled in their faces, rendering their vision all but useless. It sucked their breath from their lungs, and each draw was painful, as if they were trying to breathe around a stone in their chests. Everything hurt in the cold.

Then, out of the grey smudges of the horizon, lights. Warm, inviting lights. Then a sign emerged on the side of the road.

"Oh thank heavens, it's an inn," Tenten said, elation muffled by the fabric around her nose. "I don't care if we have to delay meeting up with Lee and Gai Sensei in Shimogakure for a night. We need to get out of this weather."

"Agreed," Neji replied. As distasteful as it was to delay the mission, their safety came first, although he wasn't too sure how he felt about spending the night with her.

It didn't matter, they were about to be out of this miserable weather.

Heat washed over their icy skin when they opened the door, and they stepped inside, looking more like mountain dwellers than shinobi with the frost that clung to their scarves like beards. The main entrance was small but cozy, with a wrinkled old man sitting behind a desk, reading a book.

"Oh dear," he said worriedly when they slammed the door shut, stemming the flow of cold air from the outside, "you both look chilled to the bone. Let me get you a room and I'll send for some hot food and drink."

"Thank you," they both murmured as they began unwrapping themselves from their various layers, shaking snow and ice off onto the rubber mat at the front door. Neji eyed her nervously, acutely aware that they were standing elbow to elbow, almost touching.

 _Get a hold of yourself,_ he admonished. _It's not as if you'll be sharing a bed. She'll be in another room. She'll be-_

"I'm sorry," the man approached them. "I only have one room, and it's a single bed. But I can provide you directions to another inn a bit down the road if you'd like, though I would advise against going out in this weather..."

Neji's heart dropped into his toes at the thought of him spending the night in the same bed as Tenten. Being able to touch her and hold her and _kiss_ her. He had to redeem himself after his _disastrous_ performance last time.

 _No, I can't,_ he thought fervently. _It would be so improper._

"I think- "

"We'll take it," Tenten spoke up before he could even ask for directions to the inn.

"Tenten," he hissed, fixing her with a glare, "are you serious?"

"Neji, think." She said tersely. "It's snowing outside, it's dark, you don't know the way, you could wander into the storm and freeze to death just as easily as you'll make it to the other inn."

He was being so _irrational,_ what was it about her that made his thoughts go astray every time she spoke to him?

"I just don't think that- "

She put up a hand and cut off whatever else he was going to say. "I don't want to hear it. You're not thinking, so I'm making a decision to keep us both alive."

The man nodded and handed them both a set of keys while saying, "I've sent someone to light the fire in your room, and hot drinks and a meal will be brought when it's ready." They exchanged polite bows before parting ways, and the pair followed the man's instructions to their room, though Neji followed behind a distance, stiff and uncomfortable.

"Last one on the right," Tenten murmured as they walked down the hallway. "I can't wait to eat something hot."

 _How can she sound so casual?_ he seethed. _Does the impropriety not phase her?_

"Anything hot right now sounds good," Neji replied in a monotone. "Though a hot drink sounds the best to me, I think."

 _Gods, act normal,_ he chided. _It's not a death sentence. You sound like you're about to fight someone, not rest for the night._

She inserted the key into the lock and the door opened. They stepped inside.

Like the foyer, their room was small but quaint, with a fireplace tucked into a corner and a large bed set against the far wall. Tenten hung their garments on the iron hooks next to the door as he stood their dumbly in the middle of the room. He couldn't move or think beyond the fact that they were in a room, together, for the night, with only one bed.

"Neji…Neji!" She said, snapping him out of his stupor. "What is with you tonight?"

He folded his arms tightly across his chest and turned away from her. "Doesn't this bother you?"

"We're spending the night out of necessity," she said shortly.

"We're in a room with a _single bed,_ Tenten. Alone."

"I don't expect you to sleep with me, if that's what you're insinuating."

"No!" He said vehemently, "I just don't know if it's proper for us to be doing this."

"Well," she replied hotly, "if having me around bothers you so much I will sleep on the floor to stay away from you."

He sighed and slumped his shoulders. "That's not what I mean," he said, a little softer than before. "You know how I feel about you and I don't know what I'm doing and I don't know what I should feel or what I do feel. I can't keep my thoughts straight."

"How _uncharacteristic_ of you, Neji, to not be in control of every facet of your life."

"I don't enjoy it, Tenten!" He snapped. "I wish I knew how to act but I don't know what to do or think or say because I've never been here before!"

She stepped around his back to stand in front of him. "You know," she said, "sometimes it's okay to let loose and not be in control."

"You don't know what you're saying," he replied flatly.

"I do, because I know how to take things in stride and not stress about every little thing. You don't, I'm sorry to say."

"What would you have me do?" he asked.

"Don't think so hard." She looked at him squarely. "I know you, you're trying to order every single thought down into submission and it's not working because I make it hard to think. So, stop thinking, and just let go."

She turned around and walked into the bathroom then, telling him that she was going to take a shower, and that if food arrived to just set it on the nightstand. He remained rooted to the floor, unable to move. _Let go? Stop thinking?_ he raged. _She doesn't know what she's talking about!_

Thoughts of her skin sliding over his, her body entwining with his own, her pulse beating hot and thick on the side of her neck, they all darted into his thoughts before he could stop them. He tried to grasp them and shove them down somewhere deep and dark and buried in the furthest corner of his mind, but they kept slipping away. The more he fought for control the more they confounded him.

 _Just let go, she says!_ He seethed. _I don't want to let go, I'm afraid of what will happen if I let go!_

More thoughts of her body, her presence, seeped into his mind, swirling through his efforts to pin them down. The longer it went on the more frustrated he became, until he growled and collapsed onto the floor.

 _I love her,_ he thought simply. _I want her, but I don't want to rush into things and scare her or take advantage of her. Hell, I don't even know what to do!_

A knock at the door jolted him out of his thoughts, much like Tenten had just a few moments ago. He stood to open the door, and a portly cook handed him a tray of hot soup, dumplings, and steaming sake. She smiled, wished him a good evening, then turned and left as she closed the door.

 _Sake,_ he thought sourly. _That's the last thing I should be drinking._ Even so, he filled one of the glasses three times and drained them, grimacing at the sting of the alcohol as it slid down his throat. Once he'd finished, he set one of the bowls on the nightstand and began spooning the contents of the other into his mouth, feeling heat rise from his stomach to his cheeks from the drink.

She emerged from the bathroom wearing an undershirt and shorts, hair wrapped in a towel. He stoically averted his gaze and passed her to enter the shower himself, slinging his bag over his shoulder.

The hot water felt fantastic against his skin, but did little to calm his mind. _She's out there,_ he kept thinking. He began to notice that his desire to control his thoughts was slipping, and he let the desires and wishes and images of her wash through his mind without trying to stop them. _Maybe I just needed to drink,_ he thought. A sensation of him kissing her, truly kissing her, not awkwardly pecking her on the lips, flooded his consciousness, and suddenly he wanted nothing more to kiss her, to kiss her everywhere, all at once.

The voice that usually condemned such thoughts was curiously silent.

He shut off the water quickly and dressed himself in his own shirt and pants, suddenly filled with a sense of desire that he'd never felt before. He ran his hair through his towel, then hastily tied it into a messy bun on the top of his head, not bothering to brush it out.

He was going to kiss her.

And yet when he actually faced her as he exited the bathroom, all his courage was tossed to the wind.

"The food is good," she said, smiling as she took another bite.

He nodded, unable to take his eyes off her. _Have courage!_ He told himself. "I…um…"

"Eloquent," she said humorously.

"Don't mock me," he said, and he forced himself to put one foot in front of the other until he was on the opposite side of the bed from her. _I can do this._

"Well then, don't look so scared," she laughed and touched his shoulder. Their eyes met again, and this time, he didn't feel the need to look away.

She was here, right in front of him. She was looking at him, just feet away. He wanted her, he loved her, he wanted her so _badly_ that the pain was near unbearable, and suddenly he realized that there was nothing holding him back. His own mind had fettered him to his ridiculous sense of propriety. But he was a man, an adult, a shinobi. If she would let him, he wanted her.

"Neji?" A questioning glimmer filled her eyes, but behind it was a sense of knowing, knowing what he was thinking.

"Tenten," he whispered. "I really, really want to kiss you." He inched forward a bit, close enough that he could see the pink tinge on her cheeks. "Can I kiss you?"

"I thought you would never ask," she said, and leaned towards him.

When their lips met, it was as if everything suddenly fell into place. This wasn't like the last time, where he was so focused on the thought of kissing her that he actually forgot to kiss. This time, his mind was quiet, a blissful silence that let the sensations of her skin and her breath touch him then wash away to be replaced anew.

It started slow, a light, gentle thing. He didn't want to push past her boundaries, so he was determined to go slow, even as he forged ahead blindly, not knowing entirely what he was doing but following his need for her. It came as a shock, then, when she took his jaw her hands and pulled him closer, deepening the kiss and lending it more power, more desire. When she pulled away, gazing at him seductively, he followed, wanting nothing more to put his lips on her skin again.

"Kiss me again," she whispered as she pulled him over the length of her body, and he was more than happy to oblige. He found her lips, then trailed his lips down her throat and out across her collarbone as he ran his fingertips over her arms and down her legs, relishing in the fact that he was finally, _finally_ touching her in the way he'd secretly wanted for years. Her hands roved up into his damp hair, then over his back to his waist, where her fingers snuck under his shirt to rove over chiseled abs.

Always the gentleman, he didn't dare touch her as she was him without her permission, so he paused for air and asked, "may I?" as he motioned to her shirt.

"You don't need to ask my permission," she breathed, "I will tell you if you go too far." Then she took his hand and guided him to her stomach, pressing his palm into her skin. He shuddered with pleasure and hungrily moved to put his lips on her exposed navel, tasting her, feeling the softness of her skin on his lips. He let his hands roam above his head, over her sides, travelling upwards until he ran into a band of fabric, her bra.

He paused for a moment, his mind momentarily reclaiming his thoughts and thinking. Should he? _No,_ he pushed his thoughts aside, _just go. Let go._ If he went too far, she would tell him. _Don't think, let go._ So he waited another moment so that his intentions were clear to her, then slipped his fingers beneath the band and let them continue upwards, traveling over hot, thick flesh, letting her fill his palms.

He needed to put his lips there, now.

He moved back up, taking her shirt and bra with him as he went, and she submitted to him and let her clothing slip over her head, leaving her torso bare to him. In the flickering light of the fire, he had to pause and drink her in. He had never seen a woman like this, and it was truly a sight to behold, especially since it was Tenten.

"Well?" she asked, and for some odd reason she sounded nervous. "Do I meet your expectations?"

He met her gaze, and when he saw that she was indeed rather nervous, he leaned in to cup her face in his hands and kissed her with all the passion and conviction that was flooding his body like wildfire. "Tenten," he breathed, pulling back to meet her eyes again, "you set the standard."

She caught his lips again with renewed vigor, and skillfully pulled his shirt up over his head. As her hands roamed wildly across his skin he returned to her breasts, taking one into his mouth and the other in his hands. He was floored to hear a moan escape her lips as he did so, and took mental note as he drew his tongue over her flesh, swirling his tongue over the peak. He relinquished one to take the other and repeated the action, feeling his core tighten as another sound of pleasure bubbled out of her throat.

"Neji…" she whispered, and the sound of his name on her lips in such a way forced a wave of heat through his body, stoking his desire. Somewhere in the back of his mind he felt his pants becoming uncomfortably tight, even as he took her flesh gently in his teeth. She moaned again and raised her hips into his, meeting his throbbing need, and his own sound echoed through the room, which surprised him even as it drove him further.

Kneading her flesh between deft fingers, he travelled lower again, nipping and licking, noting which actions she liked more than others, then he reached the waistband of her shorts. In his periphery he saw her hands grasp the bedsheets and she bit her lip in what could only be anticipation. He slid the waistband lower and let his lips brush her skin, pleased when her reaction intensified at his touch. With deliberate slowness he tugged her shorts down her hips, and then there was nothing separating her body from his gaze.

He'd not seen anyone so beautiful, not as she was, with her flushed cheeks as she clutched at the covers, ready to accept his touch. For a moment his senses became overloaded with her image, and he could only stare at her in mute admiration.

"You look like a kid in a candy shop," she said softly, voice full of passion. Her breasts rose and fell as she breathed, inviting him to ravish them again, though there was now something else calling for his attention.

"I am," he managed to murmur as he reached for her. "Is this okay?"

"Neji," she whispered, "I've waited years for you to touch me like this. Anything you do is more than okay with me."

He needed no further invitation.

Instinct guided him as he kissed her navel and traveled down, letting his hands cup her buttocks as he guided her to his mouth. Gently, he trailed his tongue along her folds, and she moaned again even as he felt his own body flood with desire. He did so again, then took her into his mouth, flicking his tongue across the sensitive nub before suckling, noting how she mewled and bucked her hips into him, eagerly taking all he had to give. As he continued he released one of her buttocks and guided a finger into her warm core, relishing in the sensation of her body pulsing around him.

Something else wished to be sheathed in that warmth; it stood painfully at attention, demanding to be recognized. He found the solid curve of her calf and pressed himself into her, staving off his need with his grinding even as he continued lavishing her with attention.

He added another and pressed onto the spongy flesh at the roof of her body, and her muscles convulsed around his hand as he did so. He suckled her nub and repeated the action, and a shudder rippled through her body as she moaned his name again.

"Do that again," she said hotly as she tossed her head back into the pillow in ecstasy. He was more than happy to oblige, and repeated the action, flicking his tongue over her and massaging that one point.

A shaking, breathy cry escaped her then as her body went rigid, and he froze, afraid that he'd hurt her in some way. "Don't stop," she whispered, and when he returned to her to take her in his mouth again, another convulsion washed through her, and she moaned his name as her core pulsated around his fingers, hardly able to breathe.

"Kami," she moaned, "Neji…"

He smiled as he realized what had occurred. "For someone who's rather inexperienced I am surprised I was able to bring you to orgasm." He slipped his fingers from her and trailed kisses up to her lips, where she held him in place as her teeth grazed his flesh.

"Now," she said, looking at him wickedly, "it's my turn."

In one swift motion she had him on his back and was making quick work of his pants.

"Tenten," he said, voice low in his throat, "what are you- "

"Do you want me to continue?" she asked, pausing even as she eyed the tent his erection created in the fabric.

"Yes, but- "

"No words then," she flashed him a smile. "I have more experience than you in this, just trust me."

She tugged his pants off then and shoved them down his ankles and off. He stood painfully at attention, and he was almost embarrassed at his eagerness. Wave after wave of pleasure washed through his body and he pulsed in response, thick and hot and waiting.

She started by kissing his chest, guiding his hands into her hair. Her own locks trailed across his member and he gasped, breath ragged as his body coiled in anticipation. She smiled knowingly and continued to travel lower, getting ever-closer yet not touching him. It went on for so long he thought he would go mad from waiting. Everything he saw and felt and heard and tasted was her, he was drowning in her sensations and he loved every moment.

Then his world erupted into stars and sharp pleasure as she brought her tongue along the tip. His hands gripped her hair and he gasped again, as if he'd been struck in the stomach. He very well could have been because he couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't do anything but lay there in shock as her tongue flicked and danced and brushed every part of him before she sheathed him in her mouth.

His core coiled again in a way it never had before, not even when he had pleasured himself countless times to the thought of her. The way she took him and touched him and cradled him against her mouth was undeniably delicious. Everything he felt was her, and there was nothing he could do to stop.

"Tenten, I- "he gasped yet again as a new sensation erupted from his groin and flooded his body. "I'm gonna- "

She said nothing but continued her work, and suddenly he was on the brink of release, clutching at the bedsheets just as she had done, mouth open loosely in a wordless groan, body rigid and waiting for the final stroke of her tongue which would send him careening over the edge into bliss.

She gave him what he craved, and as she brought her tongue up the underside of his erection he came undone, moaning her name as his body contracted, spilling his hot seed into her mouth. She smiled as he collapsed weakly into the bed, utterly spent, and swallowed what he gave. He was shaking, panting, feeling as if he'd just burst into a thousand pieces and unable to pull himself together. His head was in the clouds, his body was miles away from his mind, he was everywhere all at once.

"I would say," she grinned, "that this was a success." She crawled up to lean on her elbow next to him, gazing down on him with a look of utter triumph.

He languidly turned to her and was instantly reminded that she was fully naked before him. "Gods," he whispered, "I've never had an experience like that before." He reached up to brush a wayward strand of hair from her eyes, even as he felt his member twitch at the sight of her before him. Just the mere _sight of her_ was enough to reawaken his desire, though he'd just found his release moments ago.

Tenten noticed his arousal and laughed sweetly, saying "I could go for another round, what say you, Neji Hyuga?"

He rolled her over and claimed her lips once again, something he would never tire of doing. "If you say my name like that," he growled, "I will be more than happy to oblige you all night, my dear Tenten."

* * *

I gotta say that I can't tell if I'm pleased with this one or not. I wanted to get across the feeling that Neji is so prim and proper but also wants her hot bod and is afraid to let himself go because he never does that...AGH, I will leave it for now. R&R and give me some feedback.


	18. 83 - Heal

Inspired by a lovely piece of art by Crusanite on DA ( art/Delicious-Nejiten-Awkwardness-350417161)

I think it's hilarious, that they can't play nice. Ever.

Enjoy :)

 **Day Eighty-Three** – 28 November 2017

 **Prompt** – Heal

 **Summary** – Sometimes training goes astray…

 **Notes** – Way before the Chunin exams in Part I, they've been on a team for almost a year now and train regularly.

 **Word Count** – 1785

* * *

 **Heal**

"Again!" he shouted as he raised his palm up in a defensive position.

Tenten grit her teeth as she panted, slicked with sweat. There was no way she was getting around his defense; the Byakugan in tandem with his taijutsu made any attempt to strike him futile. But that was the point of practicing with him, right?

She focused her energy to the soles of her feet, leaping at him. Each punch and kick and jab he deflected with the flat of his forearm or somehow managed to sidestep so that she could no more than graze him with his knuckles.

He wasn't even fighting back, just blocking.

 _This is infuriating,_ she hissed.

He moved then, placing a firm blow to the center of her chest with his palm. She skipped along the packed dirt of the training grounds, grunting as her breath was forced from her body.

He hadn't even broken a sweat.

"I've had enough of this," she growled when she came to a stop, "I want to use my weapons."

"Hand-to-hand combat is the core of all fighting," he replied calmly, emotions hidden behind his ever-present mask of cold indifference. He didn't dare let that façade slip; if she knew just how much the way she flowed through each of her attacks caught his eye, she'd surely laugh at his absurdity. Better the leave it alone and save himself the embarrassment.

"I don't care!" she shouted, rolling to her feet. "Taijutsu is your element, it's Lee's element. It is not mine in the same way as it is yours."

"If you can use your weapons," he replied, "then I can use my jyuuken."

"It won't matter, you can't touch me if you can't get close." A fierce gleam leaped into her eyes, and his cheeks reddened ever so slightly. He lowered his head to feign thought or concentration, hoping to shield his reaction from her.

"Then let's begin," he said, and she vanished.

The moment her feet left the earth he activated his Byakugan, scanning, looking for her. She would come, he knew her too well. It never took long for her to launch her attack.

In that moment, a kunai flew from the bushes behind him, aimed at the center of his back. Neji took one step to the side and let it fly by, and it made a hollow _thunk_ as it embedded itself into the bark of one of the trees edging the training area.

Another flew towards the dirt at his feet, and he stepped again even as he noticed a paper bomb strapped to the hilt.

 _This is easy,_ he thought as he focused his chakra to all his points and began to rotate. The explosion came few moments later, but his kaiten brushed aside fire and smoke and debris like nothing more than brittle fall leaves.

As he straightened his knees to plant his heels in the ground to end the spinning, he sensed her approach.

She struck at him with a wooden staff, one that normally had blades attached to the end. _This is training,_ he reminded himself, _so even though there's nothing to cause me harm I should still act as if there is._

They exchanged a handful of blows, most of them delivered onto him than the other way around. The staff was just long enough to keep her out of reach of his fists; she knew one strike from him would be the ending blow.

She retreated back into the canopy of leaves, then reemerged behind him, spinning chains around her arms, ready to strike.

He leaped away, knowing she would follow. Her chains tracked his progress across the clearing, following him as they tried to trap his arms down to his sides.

"It's useless!" he shouted as he pushed off the ground, aimed for where he knew she was in the trees. They'd been partners for over a year now, yet the depth of his Byakugan often went unnoticed by her still. She always underestimated his abilities.

When he touched down on the thick branch she'd been standing on moments ago, a bright spark flickered in the corner of his vision.

 _Oh no,_ was all he had time to think before the paper bombs went off, sending him flying skyward surrounded by thick, choking clouds of smoke. Radiant shadows obscured part of his vision; it was as if a carbon copy of the explosion had burned itself into his retinas. As it was, he had a much harder time seeing, even if he could sense where she was with his Byakugan.

 _She combined bombs and smoke, that's a new tactic. She even knew the brightness of the explosion would render my sight nearly useless._ He scanned frantically for her, sensing her position with the Byakugan, trying to focus through the ringing in his ears and the dark spots which danced across his vision.

He'd finally sensed her and had just begun to orient himself in her direction when the chains pierced the smokescreen, tightening around one of his hands; the other he managed to swat away. Metal bit into his skin as she yanked him down to the ground, and he landed heavily on his hands and knees.

 _Where is she?!_

Her staff cracked down onto his back in an answer; how did she move so quickly? In just a few moments he'd lost track of her and she'd managed to land a substantial blow. If she'd had the blades on the end of the staff he'd be dead.

"Got you," she giggled behind him. "I more than make up for my hand-to-hand when I have my weapons."

He became flooded with indignation; how dare she best him! As the chains loosened from around his body he lunged again, and she met him with fury.

The fight this time was more primal; Tenten was acutely aware that she'd pricked his pride and that he'd fight back with a vengeance. She was on the receiving end of dozens of blows, each she managed to deflect before he made contact. But he was fresh; they'd been working on her basic combat skills for hours, and seeing as it was her weakness she'd used a significant amount of her energy while practicing. Neji had not.

When she stepped to duck beneath one of his pointed strikes, her foot struck a rock that rolled in such a way that she slipped and fell to her knee, raising her hand to protect her neck from his advance.

 _I'm going to hit her shoulder point,_ he thought frantically. _That'll mess up the whole network on that side…_

He tried to pull away to lessen the impact, but the way he had lunged ensured his aim would be true. Both hands hit points; he'd intended to only strike muscle which would have caused nothing more than numbness, but the way she'd fallen had exposed the points on the top and front of her shoulder. When he hit, there was nothing more than a surprised gasp from her as the left side of her body and most of her right went slack.

He froze, eyes wide in shock. What had he just done?! There was no sounds to be heard, just the thud of her body onto the dirt.

"Wh-"she hissed. "Neji! What did you do to me?!"

"I'm sorry!" he said frantically as he knelt down next to her. "The way you fell just opened two of the points on your shoulders right where I was going to strike! I didn't intend to his those points!"

"Oh I'm sure you didn't!" she barked, voice dripping with bitterness. "You couldn't just take the defeat gracefully!"

"First of all, you were far from defeating me," he said icily, "and second, it truly was an accident!"

She managed to roll herself over using her one good arm, and she glared at him with all the strength she could muster. "I think we're done for today."

"Let me help you," he said, extending a hand. "I blocked the points, but I can reopen them too."

"No thank you, Hyuga," she grit her teeth. "I'd rather crawl home on my face."

"Don't be ridiculous," he said as he slung her body into his lap and pressed a palm to her shoulder even as she squirmed in protest.

"Is this really necessary?" she cried, and he closed his eyes, deepening the ever-present crease between his brows.

"Look," he growled. "I don't like this any more than you do, but if you just stop your complaining for sixty seconds I'll have them unblocked and you can go on your merry way." He looked down on her to press his point, and when she looked like she was about to protest yet again he narrowed his eyes.

The message was clear, and she huffed and stuck her lip out petulantly. "Fine, but hurry up." And then Neji noticed her face was becoming redder by the second, and his own cheeks flushed in response.

 _Get a grip,_ he seethed. _You did this to her, you fix it. It can't be helped that you have to hold her upright while you're fixing things._

There were no more words between them as he focused on restoring the flow of her chakra through the points that he'd blocked. It was done quickly, and she pushed him down as she climbed forcefully out of his lap, digging her fingers into his knees as she did so.

"Consider yourself lucky, Neji," she said sourly. "I would have wrung your neck if you hadn't paralyzed me."

"I should count my stars," he grumbled under his breath as he crossed his arms and looked down, trying to tame the heat that still flooded his cheeks. "I need to meditate."

"Of course you do," she replied. "Meditate on your defeat."

"I will meditate about anything that will get you to quiet down," he said acidly. He assumed his pose and screwed his eyes shut, making it absolutely clear that he wanted her to leave.

She didn't say anything else, but she didn't leave either. It was as if she had more to say and couldn't get the words out.

"Training tomorrow morning, as usual?" she finally asked. The irritation had ebbed from her voice somewhat, at least.

"As usual," he repeated. "Now leave me be."

He heard her snort in indignation. "Fine, Hyuga brat." And he heard her turn on her heel and begin walking away.

As she left, he gazed at her with his Byakugan and confirmed something he knew to be true. She was smiling, grinning like a fool as she left, and strangely he felt his own lips curl at her amusement.


	19. 82 - Can You Hear Me?

So...this one is short, but _damn._ I've got two ten page papers due tomorrow but I suppose everyone will be crying just as much as I am over this.

Why do I do this to myself? I do not know.

 **Day Eighty-Two** – 29 November 2017

 **Prompt** – Can You Hear Me?

 **Summary** – What is a dream, and what is reality?

 **Notes** – Based on a lovely piece of art by gracie-sketchie-cat here on FF (find her on Tumblr too :) ).

 **Word Count** – 617

* * *

 **Can You Hear Me?**

Her nightmares are of me dying. She doesn't have to tell me; it's evident by the way she clings to me when she wakes, tears sliding silently down her cheeks. It's in the way her hands shake when she runs her fingers through my hair and across my skin, reassuring herself that yes, I am real.

Yes, I am alive.

Can you hear me?

I am alive.

When she dissolves into sobs, I hold her close because there's nothing else I can do. When she's afraid, I hold her to me, because it's easier to be afraid when you're not alone.

Can you hear me?

I am alive.

When she speaks, telling me that her dreams about my death are so realistic sometimes that she feels like her dreams are reality and that her reality is a dream, I don't know what to say. So I take my hand and press it to her cheek so she can feel the warmth of my skin and the beat of my pulse in my wrist. And still she cries.

Can you hear me?

I am alive.

I promise.

It takes a very long time to calm her down. So long that most of the night has gone, and soon we will have to wake and work and train like nothing happened, like her nightmares didn't whittle away sleeping hours in absolute terror. I will wake and make tea, as always, and she'll stumble out of the room, eyes bleary and ringed with dark bruises and loose skin.

There is nothing I can do.

Can you hear me?

I promise, I am alive.

When she comes home it's as if she doesn't see me. I try to touch her to comfort her, to hold her tight because I am afraid she's slipping away, but she is so exhausted that she sees right through me. My touch has no effect, and I have to help her undress because her tired limbs will not work properly for her to do it on her own.

Can you hear me?

I promise…

By the time I fall in to bed beside her, she is fast asleep, lost in what I hope is a dreamless slumber. She looks so much more relaxed when she is asleep, tension gone from her features, face relaxed and sweet, how I remember she used to be. I look down at her lovingly, but I don't want to disturb her, so I don't kiss her like I wish to.

Can you hear me?

I don't know…

I worry about her. I will never tell her how much I worry, but not a moment passes where I don't think of her. I watch her go through the motions of her life, the weight of her nightmares always weighing on her shoulders, grinding her down. And I can do nothing, no touch or word or caress seems to soothe away her pain. I must watch in silent agony, and I cannot escape. It's as if I don't exist.

Can you hear me?

I don't know if I'm alive.

I watch her at night, afraid to rest, afraid that I won't be there when she needs me. I watch the way she breathes and moves and holds the covers under her chin like a small child. I watch when the trembling starts, the crying, the screaming. And I reach out to her, I really do. But I pass through her, I can't help, I can't do anything but watch in silence when she reaches out for me and there is nothing but the vast emptiness of my side of the bed to greet her.

Can you hear me?

I am so, so sorry…


	20. 81 - Pen and Paper

Another short-ish one, I promise a meaty update is coming tomorrow (and I mean that in the most endearing way possible!)

I've been drowning in scientific literature so I apologize if this one sounds a little stiff. I wrote twenty pages today for two different papers on different polymers and their uses in armor...cool stuff, but so not what I needed to get into Nejiten mode.

R &R and enjoy :)

 **Day Eighty-One** – 30 November 2017

 **Prompt** – Pen and Paper

 **Summary** – Notes left before missions can be sappy and awesome, Tenten decides.

 **Notes** – Shippuden era, in the adorable stage where they can't think of anything else but each other.

 **Word Count** – 920

* * *

 **Pen and Paper**

The envelope sat on her desk in the morning, plainly labeled with her name in fine, flowing script. _His_ fine, flowing script. Just the way he even wrote her name sent her heart fluttering in her chest.

She'd woken up and rolled over to silence her clock when her fingers brushed the thick parchment. For a moment she couldn't remember if she'd been the one to leave something there, and the rays of sun filtering through the blinds had temporarily rendered her eyesight useless so she couldn't immediately discern what exactly she was holding. Only when she recognized the delicate handwriting did she know.

He was gone. He always left notes like this for her if he had to leave.

She felt her heart sink a bit as she pried open the thick, blue seal, careful not to break the intricate Hyuga clan marker that had been molded into the wax. She had several others like it in varying colors; she supposed he used whatever color wax was most convenient to him when he wrote. Either way, she enjoyed the variety, for the bright, happy colors seemed to take the edge off of his departure.

As always, he was succinct, yet managed to craft his words so intricately that he said more between the lines than he did on them. Such was his way with words, she supposed.

 _My dear Tenten,_ it said.

 _I've just been summoned last-minute for a mission to the Land of Rain. As always with these high-ranking assignments, I can't tell you where exactly I will be going or what I will be doing, but thankfully I know that I will return to you in just a handful of days. I dread every moment we're apart, and knowing this will be a quick mission makes my heart ache with anticipation, more so than if I was leaving for a longer time. Maybe it's because I just can't get you off my mind, and knowing I will have the opportunity to see you soon makes the absence that much more bitter._

 _It's just speculation, I suppose._

 _From the report I have on the mission I won't be in any significant danger, so please do not worry yourself. I will try to find you something while I am away, maybe a new weapon? I know those are always a good choice for you. I don't think I've ever said how much I actually appreciate your love for weapons. It helps significantly when I am looking for the perfect gifts for you._

 _I really must be going, I'm packed and prepared to leave to drop this off with you, but I can't pull myself away from the paper. I know you always comment on how verbose I can be, but how can I not? I don't care if I'm talking to you on paper or in person, I can do it for hours because you really are my joy, Tenten._

 _You truly make me sappy as well. I sarcastically ask that you not show Lee or Naruto my letters to you; they may revoke my masculinity and I will then have to remind them why I can write romantic letters to my love and still be a top-notch shinobi. Though I would rather avoid that confrontation altogether, you know how I am._

 _I will be home soon. I promise. Stay out of trouble, wildcat._

 _I love you, Neji._

He'd taken up calling her his "wildcat" since she was always fired up about something, and she wasn't going to settle for being called his "kitty" or "puppy." She rather liked the endearment; it acknowledged her fierceness and independence and still sounded sweet and innocent, at least to her ears.

She signed and folded the letter back into its original configuration and opened a drawer in her nightstand, adding this new letter to a pile of dozens, each with a slightly different colored seal and slightly different messages all equaling the same thing: he loved her, and he would be home soon.

Such was the way of the shinobi. She'd left him more than once as well, and though she could never hope to match the level of unadulterated romance his messages contained, she did leave him little notes slipped under his door when she did go, saying much the same as he did in his, though in a much less flamboyant manner. Oftentimes she would leave him a coupon for tea with the letter; he loved the tea shop down the street from her apartment, and Tenten begged the owner for free coupons every time she went alone, knowing that when she was away he would visit without her.

Such was their relationship. They tried to communicate and support each other as best they could, even when their profession led to many days and nights spent alone, fervently hoping for their partner's safe return. Each knew that the other was a formidable foe and that, barring any extreme situation, they would come home safely when their job was complete, but that didn't ease their worries in the slightest.

Tenten supposed that was a price to pay for being in love with a shinobi.

She leaned over to peek at the new letter again, lost in the gentle loops of his handwriting and the message within. Yes, it was a price, but it was one she was more than happy to pay when she could turn to his words on paper and know that he would come back to her soon.


	21. 80 - Words

So...I have no excuse for not updating yesterday. But I was so flipping drunk that I couldn't focus on my computer to write yesterday.

So, have this, and the next one tomorrow is going to be big and juicy and wonderful.

R & R and enjoy :)

 **Day Eighty** – 2 December 2017

 **Prompt** – Words

 **Summary** – Words are so unnecessary sometimes.

 **Notes** – Post-ninja war era

 **Word Count** – 1614

* * *

 **Words**

There was nothing worse than empty words. And unfortunately the world seemed to be filled with them. That's why she loved him. If there was nothing meaningful to say, he didn't try to fill the silence with noise. He didn't try to pester her into conversation, like so many others would. He was just content to sit and listen and watch in silence.

He gently trailed his fingertips across her forearm as she lay in his lap, and she smiled. Though he was not one to speak, he was very generous with his touch when they were alone. He always said he was able to communicate with her better that way anyways. She loved having time with him away from others because he melted into himself, not the stiff, standoffish man everyone else seemed to know. Sakura and Ino – especially Ino – always ragged on her over this, asking her how in the world she fell for someone so "lifeless."

She didn't take their comments too personally; they wouldn't understand his gentle stoic demeanor. He was her rock when everything else seemed to fall apart at times, and if they would just bother to _listen_ perhaps they would understand.

Tenten didn't need someone who was loud and obnoxious, reminding her every second of every day how _important_ she was and how _beautiful_ she was. She would rather be shown these things, and Neji tended to be blissfully transparent in this. Even by the way he looked at her he could communicate thoughts and feelings.

That's why she believed that the world was filled with empty words. What was the point in saying something if there was no conviction behind them?

"Tenten," he said softly, and she opened her eyes and looked up at him, questioning. And she was ensnared in his gaze, lost in the soft, lilac depths, and she was enamored, as she always was when he looked at her.

"You," she breathed, "you know what you do to me."

"I know, my dear," he smiled and touched her shoulder, loose folds of fabric from his robe slipping across his skin, revealing muscled forearms.

She reached up to touch his face, drawing him near. "Even so, I enjoy it."

"I know," he repeated. He lowered his eyelids to watch languidly as she ran her hands through strands of his hair that cascaded over his shoulders.

"I like when you wear your hair down," she said.

"I've been thinking of wearing it loose," he commented. "Most of the time a hair tie is next to useless because it slips out."

"I'm envious of your hair," Tenten laughed. "Mine is an untamable nest of hatred most of the time."

She felt his chuckle rumble in his chest at her comment. "I think your buns suit you much better anyways."

They fell silent again and sighed, drinking each other in, his hand on her shoulder as he read from a scroll in the grass next to where they were laying. Birds chirped from the branches overhead, flitting from one tree to the next. Tenten continued to run the strands through her fingers as she watched his features.

He had begun to read voraciously as of late, and though he hadn't told her the reason why, Tenten suspected that he was preparing for a significant change. After his near-death during the war, it was like he'd began seeing things in a different light. She would have never admitted it before, but she always felt like he'd been holding back with her, afraid to commit to her and whatever future they had. Perhaps almost dying had changed his perspective, because he'd changed. He was more open with her and held nothing back. He spoke with more feeling and acted with conviction, something he lacked before.

Yes, perhaps almost dying had changed him. But it had changed him for the better.

Tenten looked over at the scroll and read a few lines. It was a book on politics and relations between the clans of Konoha, dating back as far as there had been recorded history on the village. She frowned, trying to figure out why he would be reading something like that. Last week, he had a scroll on socioeconomics of the five main villages. Off and on he'd been reading similar books for the past few weeks.

Yes, something had changed. When he was ready to tell her, he would. She trusted him.

Suddenly, one of the birds that had been hidden in the branches flew down to hover in front of them. Neji looked up from his reading and they both watched as the bird looked them up and down, stirring the air with little eddies as it floated.

Neji's lips curled up the slightest bit and he reached out towards it slowly, so as to not startle it. The bird twittered and landed lightly on his finger, just for a fraction of a second, before flying away, disappearing into the canopy.

Tenten watched him as his face fell and he brought that same hand up to his forehead to touch the center of his curse mark. He'd been leaving it uncovered recently, and today was no exception.

"The mark isn't a defining piece of you, you broke from that long ago" she murmured, knowing that he was thinking of the fate of the branch family. Even though he'd broken free of his self-imposed prison many years ago, it was difficult for him to forge ahead with the mark carved so prominently into his skin.

He smiled at her gratefully. "I know it's not, but it helps to hear it from another person." He sighed and re-rolled his scroll, then looked at her purposefully. "I need to talk to you about something."

Tenten sat up and crossed her legs, watching him. "What is it?"

He fiddled with his fingers a moment, most likely choosing the correct words to say. "It's funny that you should say that I broke from my fate," he said.

"Why is that funny?"

"Because," he looked down at his hands. "The whole of the clan is about to break away from it too."

"Why do you say that?"

Neji met her gaze squarely now. "Hiashi-sama has asked me to lead the clan when he steps down," he said plainly. "Hinata has decided to step down as the heir to be with Naruto, and I was asked a couple of weeks ago to be her replacement."

That would explain the books on politics, then. Tenten felt her face light up with the news. "Neji, that is good news! What did you say?"

It was as if his concern melted away; his face lightened and he broke into a grin. "I told him that I would need time to accustom myself to the position and to see if I would be fit for the job. So I've been reading up on a few things about politics and leadership," he motioned to the scroll. "I haven't officially given him an answer, not only because I wanted to see if I would be suited to the work, but because I wanted to ask you."

"You don't need my permission for this, this is big, Neji!" She took his hand when he offered it.

He laughed, then swallowed thickly, as if he was nervous about something. "I do need to ask, because you are a part of my life too."

"Wherever you go I will go too." She said simply.

"Tenten," he said. "I need to ask you something then, and I'm afraid that if I don't ask if now I will not have the courage to ask it later." He swallowed again and gave her hands a squeeze before gently taking her face in his hands to look at her directly.

"Neji?" She asked softly.

"My beautiful Tenten," he whispered. "Will you marry me? But," he put a finger to her lips when she was about to speak, "please know what this would entail. I do not want to burden you with a task that you did not want."

"Neji," she repeated, then brought his face to her lips, pouring her love and devotion into the touch. "I know what you ask, and I will gladly help you as the clan leader, as your wife. Nothing would make me happier."

She felt him smile against her lips. "Is that a yes?"

"Yes, Neji Hyuga. I will marry you." They pulled apart, and both had tears in their eyes, and suddenly they were laughing and crying and holding on to each other, overflowing with happiness and joy and hope.

"I was afraid," he murmured, "that hearing me say that I would become the next clan leader might scare you away."

"Oh please, Hyuga," she retorted jovially, "we have faced death thousands of times together. There are many, many things more frightening than being the wife of a clan leader."

"You've made me so happy," he said as he kissed her again. "I can't even begin to describe…"

"Neji, I understand. I can see it in your eyes and the way you kiss me and embrace me. You don't have to try to explain."

"Of course," he smiled knowingly. "You understand me much more than anyone else."

"Then it's a good thing I'm going to be your wife, isn't it?" She laughed, filled with such a sense of unfettered joy that she wanted to jump and dance and sing. So she embraced him again, and as he returned the gesture with just as much fervor, she knew that everything was right as it should be, and she couldn't remember being anywhere as happy as she was then at that moment.

* * *

Also, I've been toying with the idea of starting a new Nejiten AU where Shippuden Neji is transported into the modern day, where he meets modern Tenten, and they go have adventures and have fun and all that. Would you guys read that?


	22. 79 - Starvation

No true update for this one from me!

Read, review, enjoy :)

 **Day Seventy-Nine** – 3 December 2017

 **Prompt** – Starvation

 **Summary** – What do you do when you're away from the person you love for a long time?

 **Notes** – Shippuden era

 **Word Count** – 1741

* * *

 **Starvation**

At this point during long missions, her absence began to feel like physical pain.

It was almost annoying, how he could be dismantling someone's chakra network as they keeled over, clutching their chest as their heart stopped beating, and the thought of her popped into his head, unwarranted. It was apt to happen at any moment, no matter what he happened to be doing or saying.

It only happened after weeks of being away, thankfully. Most missions did not last that long and he was able to return to her before it reached this point, though that thought did little to quell his longing.

"That's the last," he said as he shook his head, trying to push her image away. He would be home soon.

"You're certain?" Shikamaru spoke up next to him as he wiped his brow.

"There were five wanted targets, we saw five targets leave the building, and we just dispatched the last of those targets." He looked to Kiba, who had stepped beside him. "Do you smell anything out of sorts?"

Kiba lifted his nose and sniffed, as did Akamaru. "Nothing out of the ordinary."

Shikamaru _tsked_ and withdrew their set of orders and compared the dead man's face to the picture on the paper. "It's him, and that's the last of them," he confirmed. "Mission complete."

"Thank heavens," Neji breathed. "Let's go home."

The trio leaped into the trees, angled eastward to Konoha.

"You sure are eager to return," Kiba noted jovially.

"It took us fifteen days to track these guys down," Neji said sourly. "I'm tired of being on the road, so excuse me if I'm _eager_ to return."

"I think you're _eager_ because of something else…" Kiba's eyebrows waggled suggestively.

"I don't think bringing up that subject is wise, Kiba," Shikamaru said, his trademark scowl etched onto his face.

"And why not? The Hyuga's always so pristine and proper I've finally got-"

"Kiba," he was cut off when Shikamaru smiled. "You're still single. At least Neji's got a woman to return to, unlike you."

Neji laughed under his breath as Kiba pouted, lip jutting out in offence. "Talk about a low blow," he grumbled.

"You started it when you tried to poke fun at him, Kiba." Shikamaru retorted. "Next time pick your battles wisely."

Kiba shut his mouth while muttering something about how a pale, long-haired idiot could get a girl and he couldn't, and they continued on in silence.

They had accomplished the mission early in the morning; they'd surprised their prey as they were breaking camp. The plan had worked flawlessly, and the enemy had no idea what hit them until they were about to die. Unfortunately, trying to steal classified information then fleeing into the depths of the forest was cause for immediate disposal, especially when you were rogue ninja to begin with. The five had broken from Iwagakure some time before and had taken refuge in the smaller fiefdoms that spread between Iwagakure and Konoha. Apparently they'd thought themselves smart because they had escaped with their lives, and had subsequently tried to steal information from the Hokage's office itself. The only thing they had in their favor was that one of the ninja could manipulate their scent and chakra signatures, making them difficult to track.

Thus why it took over two weeks to find them.

The three had chased them between various lands, starting in Suna, then through the Land of Rivers then the Land of Rain. They'd just crossed into the Hidden Grass when they'd taken a hard right back into Konoha, where the trio had pinned them down and taken them out.

"What a pain," Shikamaru complained. "We're only a day and a half journey from the village but those bastards kept us on the road far longer."

"It should've been a piece of cake, between the three of us." Kiba added.

"When Lady Tsunade requests people of our caliber for a mission, it will never be easy." Neji said. "Let's pick up the pace."

They did, and when night fell, they were only a few hours from the village.

"We need to stop," Kiba spoke up. "We're exhausted and hungry."

"No use pushing ourselves." Shikamaru agreed, and though it was rather distasteful to wait until tomorrow to return, Neji couldn't argue. As he was setting his bag down to prepare his bedroll, it happened again.

 _Soft skin flowed between his fingers as she pressed into him, slick with sweat. Hot breath trailed down his neck as she pressed her tongue to his throat, forcing his head back as she pinned his arms above his head with her own. Her teeth caught the skin on his chest –_

"Neji," Shikamaru called. "We need water."

He turned away, hoping his companions wouldn't see the way his cheeks had suddenly begun to redden. "Got it," he replied.

When he was away from their sight he ran his fingers through his hair. _What is with you?_ he asked himself. _Why do you think of her when you're away for so long?_

He knew why, the instant he said it. He loved her. Not just _in love_ with her, but he actually loved her. She was a missing piece he hadn't realized he needed until they'd spoken out their feelings, and now when he was apart from her everything felt a little less bright. Though he'd never said the words to her, nor she to him, it was almost like an unspoken acknowledgement between them.

Still, it was an inconvenience when the thought of her jumped into his mind at will.

 _Soon,_ he thought. _Tomorrow._

It couldn't come soon enough. When the early morning birds began their song, he was the first to rise and pack, keeping his composure but shifting his weight from one foot to the next, betraying his impatience.

"Are you actually going to make it to the village before you explode?" Shikamaru asked. There was no reply, but Neji shoved a dark glare in his direction to make his sentiment known.

"If looks could kill," Kiba laughed, "you'd be a dead man, Shikamaru."

"Don't get between Neji Hyuga and his girl. Got it." The studs in his ears glimmered as Shikamaru made a check mark motion in the air with his finger.

"Hn." Neji crossed his arms over his chest but did not give them the satisfaction of a response. Thankfully, they were on their way a few minutes later.

Neji didn't think he'd felt such elation as he did when the village came into sight that day. Once they'd reported their successes to the Hokage and detailed every moment of their chase for her in explicit detail, he bid the Kiba and Shkiamaru a short farewell and beelined for Tenten's apartment as quickly as he could. It was still early in the morning; the sun had been up for only a couple hours, and knowing Tenten she would still be asleep, since she wasn't up training with him as they did when he was home.

He stepped onto the porch and knocked softly, though it didn't surprise him when there was no answer. So he slipped around the north side of the building, stepping on precariously thin windowsills and ledges to get to the window that led into her bedroom. He jigged the window open in a way that only came from practice, and slipped quietly inside, closing it again sealing the curtains behind him.

As he had predicted, she was still sound asleep, curled around her blankets like a small child. The deep ache in his chest that stemmed from her absence eased, and he found himself grinning like a fool.

Only when he was about to slip under the covers next to her did he realize that he was rather dirty from the road and was in dire need of a bath. Though he hated to wait a moment longer, he knew that it would be better for them both if he washed first. So he went to his bathroom and stripped out of his clothes, washing with the soaps he purposefully left in her shower for this very reason. As was his custom since they'd truly begun dating, he always carried a set of pajama pants on missions so he wouldn't have to stop at the compound first on his way to see her, and he donned these as he towel dried his hair and gathered it in a bun at the nape of his neck, not bothering to comb out the tangles he knew lurked in its depths.

Only then did he pull the covers back and slide into bed next to her, running his fingers gently over her hips to press her close to his body.

He sighed then and leaned into her pillow, nuzzling into the back of her neck. Her back was warm and solid against him as he carefully adjusted his position to meld his body to hers, softly draping a forearm around her waist. He felt her stir.

"Neji?" she asked groggily.

"Hello my love," he murmured. She languidly brought her hand up to take his and she wrapped his arm around her body to cradle it against her chest, entwining her fingers with his.

"Neji," she said again, this time as an affirmation. "You're home."

He pressed his lips lightly to her neck. "It took a bit longer than we thought," he said simply.

"I'm glad you're back," she whispered as she shuffled down into the covers again. "You want to sleep?"

"I would like to sleep," he replied, knowing that in a few minutes the exhaustion of the mission would catch up with him and he wouldn't be able to do anything else. But she only nodded and pulled him closer, sharing the warmth of her skin. He reveled in the fact that he could touch her again, could smell the perfume of her hair.

He had missed her.

Just as he was about to say his thoughts, she spoke up. "I missed you," she said softly.

He pressed the bridge of his nose into the curve of the base of her skull, fitting his body to hers in every way he could imagine as he buried into her hair, and nodded ever so softly.

"I missed you too," he breathed, and nothing made him happier than the gentle squeeze of her hand in his in response.

He'd been starved of her presence, and now he would make it up to her, one moment at a time.


	23. 78 - Drink

*******RATED M*******

Y'all can probably guess the path this one is going to be on just based on the prompt...

Enjoy :)

 **Day Seventy-Eight** – 4 December 2017

 **Prompt** – Drink

 **Summary** – Neji and Tenten get frisky after drinking…

 **Notes** – Post war era, AU where Neji lives (obviously, otherwise we wouldn't have Nejiten). Also background NaruHina (though I loathe them, tbh), ShikaIno.

 **Word Count** – 1425

* * *

 **Drink**

Tonight was a cause for celebration. Lady Hinata was engaged.

Tenten had known the actual engagement before he did, but Naruto had had the foresight to approach him before asking for Hinata's hand. It was common knowledge that her cousin watched over her as obsessively as her father, maybe more so. He was her self-appointed guardian, after his disastrous display of indifference towards her during the Chunin exams.

Naruto had set him on the right path. Though he would never admit it, it seemed almost ironic that he would ask him for permission to marry his cousin, given the great service he'd done for him in the past. Neji would have done anything Naruto would have asked, so in debt he was to him.

So tonight, they would celebrate. Hinata and Naruto were going to be married.

Of course, he and Tenten would be celebrating their own engagement as well, though the knowledge was not yet public.

As they left her apartment, he reached out for her hand and entwined his fingers with hers, even as he juggled three bottles of wine in the other.

"Hi babe," she murmured, taking one of the bottles from him. He smiled gratefully.

"I have to say," he replied, swinging his loosely tied hair over his shoulder, "that I have never been a happier man."

"Why do you say that?" she asked curiously, turning to meet his gaze.

"Think about it a moment," he caught an errant lock of hers and tucked it behind her ear as they walked, then reclaimed her hand. "The war is over, Lady Hinata is engaged, we're at peace again. And," he leaned toward her and lowered his voice, "I have the most wonderful lady I could ever ask for."

"And this wonderful lady is happy she gets to marry the man of her dreams." She leaned her head against his shoulder and they walked through the dusk towards the Hyuga compound in companionable silence.

Most everyone was already there when they arrived, and music and laughter floated through the air. The Konoha Eleven was a jovial crowd and any excuse they had to gather for drink and food was most welcome. Now that the fighting was done, it seemed that every little thing was cause to celebrate, since everyone wanted to chase away the things they had seen and done during the war.

He and Tenten were met at the door by Shikamaru and Ino, who were so wrapped around one another it was a miracle how they even breathed.

"Ah, good!" Ino cried "we were lacking a good red for tonight!" She slapped Shikamaru on his rear as she turned to claim the wine from their hands, and Neji noticed how his cheeks were tinged pink. Both their cheeks were glowing.

As they stepped inside, Tenten turned to Neji and muttered "they're already deep in their cups, aren't they?"

"It's a celebration for an engagement, of course everyone will be drinking," he replied.

"Are we drinking tonight?" she asked, looking at him out of the corner of the eye as they measured those in the room. Several people were significantly drunk with many more on their way, Naruto included. Even Hinata was more relaxed as she stood at her fiancé's elbow, gracefully accepting all manner of congratulations and well-meant teasing tossed her way.

"I think," Neji said softly as he raised his head, "I need to find myself a glass. Would you like something?"

A smirk crossed her face. "Sake, please."

"Sake for two it is," he turned to weave through the crowd in search of their drinks, and Tenten stepped up to the nearest group of people to begin conversation.

There was no telling how long they'd been there, only that they left the compound during the wee hours of the morning, hardly able to stand. They leaned on each other as they stumbled towards her apartment, laughing and swaying.

It was too difficult to form words in their state so they stuck with pointing and gesturing as their form of communication, which seemed to be enough to get their thoughts and feelings across.

They must have woken up the entire apartment complex, the way they barged up the stairs and burst through her door like a couple of elephants. They managed to knock the dishes they'd left on her table onto the floor, where the two bowls broke into several pieces.

Someone muttered something about cleaning it up later as they made their way to her bed, leaning heavily on the walls and shedding clothing as they went.

Their lips met in a clumsy fury when they hit the mattress, and there wasn't a discernable difference between arms and legs, the way they fumbled about. Neji's lips were on her chest then her tongue was pressed to the small of his back. _How'd he get flipped over?_

The thought was dashed when she pressed her hips into his and forced him into the bed, and he found he rather liked it, the way she seemed to manhandle him to her liking.

His interest boiled over into desire when she bent over him and brought her tongue along the edge of his ear and whispered, hot and sultry, "you're mine, my love."

She hooked her heels into his legs and splayed him face down in the duvet as her hands roved over his skin, nails biting into the planes of his chest. He moaned loudly, voicing his pleasure, even as he bucked his hips, trying to toss her off of him. His protests were quickly silenced when she took his nipples between her fingers and squeezed, bringing him back down and stifling his movement.

She roughed him onto his side where she pinned him with her knees, grinding herself into his hip as she took his erection into her palm. His breath hissed through clenched teeth as she brought her fingers down over and over again, urging him into a whirling spiral of pleasure and alcohol-induced vertigo.

Only when he was about to spill over the edge did he take control from her, and she fought back with mock anger, pushing back against his arms and legs as he pressed her down beneath his body.

"I'm going to take you here, now," he grunted as he pinned her down with his hips as he gripped the headboard with one hand to steady himself. He looked down on her, and for a moment his desire vanished. She was positively beautiful, the way her hair fanned out around her face in a halo with her kiss-swollen lips and half-lidded eyes, the way she stretched underneath him and pressed herself into his hands and against his body.

Only when she ground her hips against his and reminded him what was waiting did he plunge into her even as he dipped his head down to bury into the curve of her shoulder where he ravished her with his tongue. A moan escaped her lips as she raked fingers over his back and hooked her legs over his hips, moving her body with his strokes.

As he felt his need coil deep in his belly he grasped the headboard again with one hand and secured her hips against his with the other, plunging deep into her body as he felt her begin to quiver around him. The headboard struck the wall in rhythm to their motion, but neither could care enough to adjust their efforts to not alert the whole building to their activities.

It was soundless, in stark contrast to just a handful of moments ago, when they came over the edge together. Breath hitched and bodies ground to a halt as wave after wave of euphoria washed through their bodies. Then strength suddenly left them and they collapsed, unable to lift even a finger as they panted.

As time restarted and the high wore off gradually, they came to their senses and moved into a more comfortable position, Tenten curling into his side as he draped an arm across her shoulders.

"Wow," he breathed. It was all he could manage to say.

"I know," she replied, nuzzling into his chest. "I think I can stay here forever."

"Agreed," he moved to kiss her forehead, languidly, then leaned against the top of her head, feeling sleep tug at his consciousness. "I love you."

"I love you too, Neji," she murmured.

They fell asleep that night wrapped around each other, lost in the fuzz of alcohol and post-coital bliss, wanting for nothing else in the world.

* * *

Nejiten 'bouta be in some troooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuubbbbbbbblllllle...this wasn't like day 97...


	24. 77 - Test

I cracked myself up with this one. Truthfully, I always thought young Neji was an immense jackass because he was so rude during the Chunin exam arc. Even after that he still had moments of assholery, though by the Kuroski family arc he was much better imho.

Maybe it's because Tenten beat the shit out of him enough to get the message through?

Please review if you haven't already, I always appreciate the feedback :)

 **Day Seventy-Seven** – 5 December 2017

 **Prompt** – Test

 **Summary** – Sometimes Neji can be so bullheaded and prideful that it drives Tenten insane. Almost to the point of leaving.

 **Notes** – After Chunin exams, before part II. They're not in a relationship yet but well on their way (that happens early Shippuden era, more on that soon), though that doesn't mean they can't duke it out over things.

 **Word Count** – 1602

* * *

 **Test**

When they fought, it was never a pretty sight.

It wasn't just the fact that it was so rare that they could count on their hands the number of times they'd actually fought, but it usually degraded into a physical altercation.

We're not talking about _disagreements._ Those were every day, trivial matters. No these were _fights_ , fights that if they ended badly would end their relationship, romantic or otherwise. Fights over life-or-death or permanent decisions, fights over things so great that there would be no other option but to leave if things weren't decided upon correctly.

This time, Neji had swung first. That in and of itself was an anomaly.

"Are you serious?!" Tenten shrieked as she ducked beneath his palm.

"You tell me!" He struck again and hit empty air. Hours upon hours of training with Tenten had made her extremely adept at predicting his moves.

"You try to get us killed, and now _you're_ the one throwing punches?" She reached out to try to catch him by the front of his shirt, but he nimbly twisted away.

"Guys," Lee tried to step in to separate them, but with no avail, "maybe we can just talk this one out-"

"No, absolutely not!" Tenten shouted, and Lee shrunk back out of the way of her flying fist. "I'm sick of you thinking you're the best thing to ever walk this earth, Hyuga. You nearly killed Lee and I today with your ridiculous new jutsu. And you didn't care!"

"I told you I'm still trying to refine the technique!" He dropped to the earth to avoid a knee that swung for his nose. "The Air Palm is something I've been working on, you know that!"

"Well _maybe_ you should hold off on practicing on your teammates until you're better with it, Neji! Use your brain!" She managed to graze his cheek with her knuckles and they separated.

"It's not that bad, Tenten!" Lee pleaded from the sidelines.

"Lee, you blacked out for over a minute. I thought we were going to have to rush you to a hospital!"

"It's okay, Tenten, I swear-"

"Shut up, Lee!" She skid on the packed dirt of the training grounds as he forced her aside, then jumped at him again. "He swung first because I insulted his pride. I'll swing last to make sure he never even _thinks_ of doing it again!"

Tenten and Neji exchanged a fury of blows for several minutes, each only managing to land minor hits. As they fought, Neji furiously tried to build up some sort of defense for himself. However, the more he thought about the mistake he made, the more he realized how serious it could have been. Lee could have been seriously hurt. So could Tenten. That thought alone caused his chest to tighten.

 _I will never admit it,_ he stubbornly decided. _Not when she's trying to beat me to a pulp._

It was only when she managed to pin his neck down to the ground with her knee in the small of his back did he finally accept defeat.

"What's the matter, Hyuga?" She taunted as he glared at her from his place in the dirt. "Too tired?"

"You know the new technique uses a lot of chakra," he hissed. "Let me up."

"Not until you apologize," she said. "You walked away like an absolute jackass when Lee went down. That's not how things work here. You're not so important and great that you can do whatever you want. That has never been the case."

"I won't say anything," he grunted as he struggled against her. His pride would not allow him to admit his wrongdoing even when deep in his soul he knew she was right.

"Then," she said mockingly, "I suppose we will just stay here all night."

"Yeah right," he grunted as she dug her knee deeper into his back. "Good luck with that."

"Try me, Hyuga."

True to her word, she remained on top of him for the next several hours. Every so often he would test her, seeing if she would let her guard down enough for him to flip her over, but she remained sharp as ever and he could never get her off guard. His indignation boiled over more than once at being subjugated to such abuse at the hands of a girl, but the harder he struggled the more viciously she pinned him to the ground.

The sun traveled its route to the horizon, and still they did not move. Lee had left and come back after finding something to eat and a pack of ice (the sight alone of him needing ice on his account made Neji supremely ashamed of himself, though he did not say so to deny Tenten the satisfaction). And they continued to sit there in silence.

When it became dark and the night began to chill, he could feel her shivers as she sat on his back, but she refused to yield.

He continued to reflect on what he'd done wrong and every new replay of his actions brought something new to mind for him to cringe at. The way he'd carelessly used the Air Palm, how Lee had been caught in the vortex and slammed into a tree. The way Tenten had scrambled in genuine fear to distance herself before trying to help Lee. And most of all, the worst thing he had done, was to stand, arms crossed over his chest, staring down with mock disdain at Lee when he'd come to, even though the guilt and shame of hurting his teammate rushed through his body with the force of a typhoon.

 _Tenten's right, I was a jackass,_ he finally admitted to himself. A pit formed in his stomach when he realized that there was no way he was going to be getting out of Tenten's grip unless he apologized, and he was almost afraid to say it now, given that so much time had passed since the incident and he'd made an even bigger fool of himself since.

Better to get it over with sooner rather than later.

"Alright," he growled.

"What was that, Neji?" Tenten spoke up sourly.

"I said alright!" He shuffled his shoulders under her hand and then sighed. "Look, I'm sorry Lee. I've honestly had more than enough time to reflect on what happened in the past few hours, and I realize that I was a complete ass." He eyed Tenten over his shoulder. "To both of you guys."

Lee shouted an enthusiastic affirmation and struck his good guy pose. "Not to worry, Neji-kun! I am as fine as ever!"

Tenten finally removed her knee from his back and he rose gingerly, shaking out numbness and cold from his limbs. "Was it really necessary to keep me here until the moon rose?"

She snorted. "Were you going to apologize if I let you up before?"

He looked down at his feet in embarrassment. "No, I suppose not."

"Well," she pulled him and Lee together in the circle of her arms, smiling. "I think Neji has learned an important lesson today, don't you think Lee?"

"I would agree!" Lee clenched his fist for emphasis.

"Good," Neji grumbled under his breath even as a smile tugged at the corners of his lips. "Everyone's happy, yay."

"Oh cheer up, Neji. It wasn't that bad," Tenten laughed. "Do you guys want to go get something to eat?"

"I have no time!" Lee yelled as he flipped himself over to balance his body on his hands. "I ate previously, and I am expected home soon! Since we did not train all day, I shall walk home on my hands! If I cannot make it home, I shall do 500 pushups before walking inside!" And with that Lee began wobbling home on his hands as Tenten called out for him to be careful and not overdo it.

"Well," she sighed and brushed her hair out of her face. "Would you like to get something?"

Neji frowned at her. "You just pinned me down for six straight hours, and now you want to go eat?" he asked incredulously.

"Yes, that is exactly it." Tenten nudged him. "Come on, you passed a difficult test today, the test of humiliation."

"If you mean that I feel humiliated, then you would be correct," he said flatly.

"Oh get the stick out of your ass Neji. Let's go eat." She put her hand on his shoulder to help him along, and her fingers lingered on his body when she could have easily taken them away. So he looked at her expectantly, waiting to see if she had something more to say.

They locked eyes and his heart leaped to his throat. For months now he'd been trying to suppress his feelings for her with little success, and now that they were alone it became increasingly difficult to pretend that he only liked her as a friend. Her hand remained on his shoulder, not forcing him away, perhaps…was she drawing him in? _You're imagining things,_ he told himself vehemently.

The moonlight turned her eyes to silvered chocolate, and the way the pale light shone on her skin was so enticing that he had to tear his gaze away, lest he do something incredibly improper.

"Fine," he grumbled, tucking his face under the collar of his shirt to hide his rapidly reddening cheeks. "Let's go."

Her hand remained on his shoulder a few more moments as she agreed, and when they turned to walk back to the village he could have sworn she was smirking over her own pink-tinged cheeks.


	25. 76 - Broken Pieces

I have to say I really, really enjoyed this one. Not entirely sure why, but they're getting better and I couldn't be happier :)

Enjoy and leave a review!

 **Day Seventy-Six** – 6 December 2017

 **Prompt** – Broken Pieces

 **Summary** – Nighmares pt. II: Tenten

 **Notes** – Postwar

 **Word Count** – 1841

* * *

 **Broken Pieces**

I wake with a start.

 _He's dead._

I can't hear anything above the sound of blood rushing in my ears, heart pumping at a furious rate. With shaking hands I fling the sheets from my body, sending locks of hair twirling into my eyes.

 _No he's not,_ I think, _he's not dead._

The floor is cold beneath my feet as I swing my legs down over the mattress and lean heavily on my thighs, fingers gripping my scalp tightly, as if I can force the images from my mind by physically clawing them out of my brain.

Beside me his breathing is low and even, fast asleep. I can see the outline of his body under the sheets.

 _He's not dead,_ I tell myself again. _He's right there, you can see him. He's alive._

And yet, nothing I can say can stop my shaking hands or the furious, panicked beat of my heart.

I know what I saw that day. I can name every single fucking detail, down to how many flecks of his blood struck my face when he was hit. I can tell you how his expression looked when he realized he was dying. To this day, the scent of blood brings back memories, no, _nightmares_ of what happened.

I've stopped waking him when they come at night. Although they don't happen as often as they used to, it didn't seem worthy enough of a cause to bother him. He struggled with his own demons just as I did, and robbing him of sleep to burden him with the knowledge that I had dreamed of him yet again when he couldn't do anything about it seemed downright cruel.

Perhaps that's part of what made us compatible, in a weird, fucked up sort of way, how we both struggled with nightmares.

I try to wrangle my breathing into a slower, even tempo but _damn it_ I can't get it under control tonight. Some nights it's easier to convince myself that it was just a dream, but tonight was not one of them. I wasn't able to tell I was dreaming this time, and the horror of watching the person I loved more than anything die was nearly too much to bear again.

Hiashi had told me many things when I'd dragged my sorry carcass to his doorstep, begging for advice when Gai Sensei couldn't help me. What he said had made sense, that this was our burden to bear as shinobi and that we would _endure_ to continue the legacy of those before us. That it was our job to protect the village, and if the village needed us to die in our service, then so be it.

Of course, it didn't stop the nightmares. It helped, reframing the issue to see it from a different angle, but the subconscious does not listen to reason. And emotionally I knew I had been scarred by many things and it was only just recently Neji's near death that played havoc on my mind.

I turned to look down on him again. Being able to physically see him breathe and move always helped to settle my mind.

He looked much younger when he was asleep, dark hair a cascade of liquid ink across the sheets. The now-familiar tightness between his eyebrows was gone, and his dark lashes rested lightly on high cheekbones. He didn't seem troubled in the slightest, and I hoped more times than I could count that one day, the face he wore when he was awake would be the same one that appeared when he was asleep.

He was doing much better, after the night we walked to the memorial in the rain. Before then I was just as liable to be woken by his cries as by my own terrors. Now, he usually could make it through most of the night without troubles. That made me far happier than I could ever describe.

I exhaled long and slow, irritated by the shaking of my body and my hands and damn near everything else. I rattled with fear which was so uncharacteristic that it made me ridiculously frustrated. Why would I be bothered by something that was in the past, especially when he was real and whole in my bed now?

The subconscious does not listen to reason.

I dug my fingers into my skull and tugged my hair at the roots, hoping that the pain would help center me. I knew it was useless; I had caused far more damage to myself in my previous efforts to escape the nightmares, but still, it was worth a shot. Resigned to spending the rest of the night awake, I stood and walked out of the bedroom, snagging a coat off the rack as I quietly walked through the kitchen and opened the front door, leaving it cracked so I could get back in eventually.

I didn't need to look where I was placing my hands as I climbed onto the roof; I'd worn the shingles to smoothness where I grabbed them to scale the wall. From the top of the building I could see out across the river, and usually being outside helped calm my nerves.

The cool air sank into my lungs and brought clarity to my mind, and I looked out across the city as I wrapped my arms around my knees, hugging them to my core. Forcing myself to remember who and what I had fought for, what we had fought for, always seemed to center me. That, and the great stone faces always seemed to look contemptuously down on me whenever I couldn't free myself from the shackles of my own mind. Their pointed stares also helped.

The shaking in my hands calmed after an hour or so as I silently watched the crescent moon traverse the sky, counting stars and making shapes of the clouds. It was a game I was used to playing when I couldn't get the bloody images out of my head. Finding something to physically look at and count brought me back.

Suddenly, I heard the apartment door creak open.

"Tenten?" he whispered out over the balcony.

I stepped up and slid down the roof to meet him. "I'm sorry," I replied. "Did I wake you?"

From the look on his face he knew exactly why I was up on the roof, and a sad sort of expression filled his eyes as he put his arm around me. "No, love," he murmured as he guided me back inside. "I woke and noticed you were gone."

He handed me a cup of hot tea, which I gratefully accepted. Yes, he knew why I was out there, and had made a drink to help me get back to sleep. That was how he was, always so caring and kind and selfless.

"Are you okay?" he asked as he sat at the table, not turning on a light but instead letting the moonlight fill the kitchen.

I shrugged, taking a sip of my drink. "I'm not sure I even know what being okay is anymore."

He pursed his lips and blinked slowly, digesting my words. It was true; I didn't know what being okay even meant anymore. I wasn't struggling like I used to with what had happened. More like I was resigned to dealing with the dreams and knew how to handle them when they happened. Would a normal person classify that as being 'okay?'

Probably not.

"It still weighs on your mind," he said plainly.

"It still weighs on yours too," I replied, though there was no anger or bitterness in my remark.

He sighed and wrapped both hands around his mug. "You're right," he murmured as he looked down into the steaming depths of his tea, "I don't think I know what being okay means either."

We sat in silence to drink for a bit, letting the hot liquid seep into our consciousnesses and soothe away tension and worry.

"Maybe it's not necessarily a bad thing," I said after the pause. He raised his eyebrow in curiosity, prompting me to explain. "Maybe…maybe there is no such thing as being okay. Just what is normal."

He nodded thoughtfully, thick locks falling across his forehead. "Maybe," he agreed.

"This is our normal for now," I continued. "We both have nightmares about things we can't change. But the normal evolves. Neither of us is struggling terribly, it's just something we know how to bear. I think everyone is different."

He took another sip before saying, "I think you're right. Maybe dysfunctionality is our specialty."

"I believe it to be a specialty of being a ninja," the words came out muffled as I spoke them into my cup as I drank the last of the tea. It was something stated as a matter of fact; shinobi were meant to endure, but we weren't built to be immune to the reality of our profession.

"So you're not struggling, at least," he confirmed, scooping up the two mugs in his hands to put them in the sink.

"I think I'm okay," I replied. And for the first time I felt like I was right.

Tears began to fall down my cheeks even though there was nothing for me to cry over. I had gotten used to the fact that they might spring up at any time. He noticed, as he noticed everything about me, but said nothing. Instead, he extended a hand to pull me up to my feet and helped me out of my jacket. Wordlessly he pulled me to bed, where he put his arms around me and let me fall apart. There was nothing he could say or do that would stem the flow; he knew this after several miserable attempts to do so in the past.

 _I'm glad he doesn't waste efforts on me when he knows it's pointless. Words just get in the way anyways._

When it was over, he pulled back and put his hands on either side of my face as we lay across from each other, wrapped in the blankets and nestled into the pillows.

"You know," he whispered, "whatever your normal is, I will love you regardless. You know this, right?"

The pale lavender of his eyes glistened in the dark and his voice was thick with emotion. He searched my face for my answer, expression so gentle and tender it almost broke my heart.

I leaned into his palms and replied, "of course I know, Neji. We're shattered into a million pieces and won't ever be the same as we once were, but I wouldn't have you any other way than who you are now."

He blinked, understanding, and then the corner of his mouth lifted slightly. "You know," he said, "maybe between the two of us, we have enough broken pieces to make it through. You think?"

I laughed quietly and leaned in to kiss him then, because of course I knew this to be true. "I think it's a fair assumption, my love," I whispered, and we both settled to try to catch a bit more sleep before the dawn.


	26. 75 - Mirror

*******RATED M**********

I'm in a smutty mood recently, so prepare yourselves. Also, two updates today since I didn't update yesterday.

Enjoy and leave a review please! :3

 **Day Seventy-Five** – 8 December 2017

 **Prompt** – Mirror

 **Summary** – the new mirror in the bathroom results in consternation, seriousness, and hot sexiness.

 **Notes** – Late Shippuden era

* * *

 **Word Count** – 1419

 **Mirror**

He nearly had a heart attack when he walked into the bathroom and noticed another person standing next to him.

Only after he almost ran his fist through the intruder did he realize that it wasn't an intruder at all, it was a mirror.

He huffed and adjusted the towel around his waist; it had almost come off during his confrontation. "Tenten?" he called down the hallway. "When did we get a full-length mirror in the bathroom?"

She poked her head around the corner and replied "I picked one up while you were on your mission. We needed one."

"I almost broke it," he grumbled. "Scared me half to death."

She laughed and returned to the kitchen to finish making lunch. "I'm sorry, I should have warned you!"

'Hn," he sighed, mostly to himself, then stoically ignored his reflection and stepped into the shower, as was his original plan. "Stupid mirror, seriously…almost punched it…"

He started the water and let himself relax under the soothing hot stream. The mission hadn't been long, thankfully, so he wasn't terribly grimy from the road, but the sensation of a hot shower was something to be savored. He stood for a long while letting the water run across his back and through his hair before he washed. Shortly thereafter he stepped out, towel wrapped around his hair.

Still ignoring the reflective offender hanging on the wall to his right, he leaned over the sink to inspect his face. A new scratch stood prominently on his chin, but there were no new blemishes besides. Pleased, he untangled his hair and began methodically applying detangler and brushing through it, starting from the tips and working his way up. Only when it lay flat and orderly against his back did he put his brush down and step away.

Though still irritated with the mirror, he couldn't help but stop and look at himself as he passed. It had been quite some time since he had a mirror to inspect himself fully, and he noticed there were quite a few new scars compared to the last time he looked.

Sighing, he stepped closer, pressing his fingers into each and every one, looking at the shape of each, remembering how he had received them. To a shinobi, scars were a sort of badge of honor, and though he wasn't happy with being dealt blows in the first place, he was proud to bear such a wide array of marks. It was a log of his experiences, etched directly into his body. It was a sign of his commitment to his work.

His fingers bumped over his left shoulder where one of the two biggest scars sat. It was thick and ropy, white against his skin. He remembered this one well.

The memories came easily to him when he called them to the front of his mind, and he remembered the pain of the arrows as they twisted through his body. He had to suppress a shudder. _I'm lucky to have lived._

The scar's twin sat on his right hip, and he touched it as well, reliving the experience. Not just the pain, but the dangerous, wild flight back to the village with Tenten.

She saved his life that day.

As if thinking of her was enough to draw her near, he heard her pad into the bedroom, saying "lunch will be ready in a bit, it's in the oven now." In the darkness of the shuttered windows, she began to strip her clothing from her body, intent on also showering before they ate. She hummed jovially to herself as she did so.

He didn't turn to watch her. It was as if he couldn't take his eyes off the flaws on his skin. Even with the sense of accomplishment that came from acquiring new scars, these two seemed to always quiet him with the realization that he was very much a human, and that his work was dangerous.

It reminded him that he could be torn away from her, and she from him, at any moment.

Perhaps it was the steam from the shower or single-minded focus on getting to the shower, but she didn't see him and what he was doing. Only when she scooped her towel up off the floor and was about to walk by him to the shower did she come to the realization.

Immediately, her expression fell and her humming ended abruptly.

"Neji?" her voice was soft as she stepped into the bathroom, noticing what he was doing, letting her towel slip from her hand.

Her voice broke his reverie, and he turned his head to gaze at her, knowing his expression was far from comforting. "Just remembering," he said to reassure her, smiling gently, though it didn't reach his eyes.

She stepped up to stand next to him and press her fingers into the back of his shoulder at the other end of the scar, skin cool and soft on his.

"I remember too," she murmured quietly.

Her fingers journeyed down his body, touching the places where kunai had once pierced his skin, six places in total, all jagged and raised on his otherwise smooth back. He watched with rapt attention through the mirror as she did so. As she touched the back of his hip at the second scar, she pressed her lips to the center of the first, wrapping her other hand around his waist.

"I wish it hadn't happened in the first place, but…" her breath washed over his skin as she spoke, "I'm just happy I got there in time."

He turned to face her, reaching up to cradle her face in his hands, looking into her eyes with such an expression of tenderness that she was almost brought to tears. "I will thank you every day of my life that you were there," he whispered.

She closed her eyes and leaned into his touch, understanding his gratefulness at a deeper level than he could express.

His eyes and fingers roamed downwards, reaching out to her own scars, places where she'd been hurt over the years, admiring each and every one. She watched him through half-lidded eyes, enamored with his pure, unadulterated focus. It wasn't possession she saw in his face, because possession would have meant that he thought he owned her. No, it was something like obsession, or a mixture of infatuation and adoration. She couldn't think of a word to describe it in its entirety, but whatever it was, she knew that she thoroughly enjoyed it.

He stepped into her, forcing her to retreat until her backside was up against the vanity, and only then did he press his lips to her throat, even as she reached up to weave her fingers through damp hair, pulling him closer. In one deft motion he bent to take her thighs in his hands and lifted her onto the countertop, knocking aside various bottles she had arranged on her side of the vanity.

She couldn't care less.

Gone was his somberness, now that she'd awoken his desire for her. He couldn't get his lips on enough places fast enough, and her hands wrapped strongly around his triceps, anchoring herself into his ministrations.

"Why do we always get this way?" he growled into the curve of her shoulder as she tugged at his hair, guiding him.

"When you're madly in love and are two attractive people, it just happens," she breathed. "I'm surprised we aren't like this every moment we're alone."

"Sometimes I wish we were," he replied as he guided her legs over his hips, and as she obediently locked them around his body he ground himself into the crease of her leg, bringing skilled hands south to brush her with the lightest of touches.

This elicited a moan from her, and the fire raging in his core doubled its heat.

"Neji…" she whispered hotly as he sucked on her collarbone, sinking a finger into her body.

"Come for me," he whispered as he stirred her own passion with his hands. With a few well-placed strokes she came undone obediently, as he requested, biting her lip and unsuccessfully trying to hold back sounds of pure pleasure.

"You…" she whispered, panting. "Kami…"

He helped her down onto shaky legs and said, low and velvety, "go shower. I'll take care of lunch so we can continue."

She planted a languid kiss on his back as she stepped around him. "Of course, my dear. We wouldn't want any interruptions, now would we?"


	27. 74 - Are You Challenging Me?

So FFN was down last night when I tried to post...working on 73 now!

Poor, poor kid.

Enjoy! :3

 **Day Seventy-Four** – 10 December 2017

 **Prompt** – Are You Challenging Me?

 **Summary** – First kiss =/= success. Poor bb…

 **Notes** – Time skip era

 **Word Count** – 1530

* * *

 **Are You Challenging Me?**

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Neji quirked an eyebrow up, watching her from where he sat beneath the trees.

"Do you have to meditate now?" she groaned as she flopped into the grass. "I am itching to train right now."

He sighed and hung his head a moment, trying to decide whether or not to end his peace and quiet earlier than anticipated. Of course, it didn't take much reflection; he would shuffle his whole afternoon around for her if she asked.

"All right, let's go."

She held out a hand for him to take, and his heart fluttered in his chest when he had the opportunity to take it. Being able to touch her would forever be something he thoroughly enjoyed. She hauled him to his feet, then skipped a few steps to face him on the opposite side of the clearing.

"What will it be, Hyuga?" she asked playfully. His response was to casually draw a kunai from the pocket on his thigh and toss it in her direction. She laughed gleefully as she plucked it from midair. "Long distance it is."

And then she vanished.

Neji called upon his Byakugan as he stood wordlessly, keeping his breathing low and even, sensing her presence among the trees. His abilities had continued to grow exponentially with the training he did with both Tenten and Hiashi on a daily basis. What would have once left him shaking and weak was no more than a nuisance now.

"You're going to have to go much farther than that if you want to have any chance at besting me." Her chakra signal was bright and clear where she hid behind his left shoulder in the trees.

"Who says I'm looking to go outside your range?" she taunted. A kunai whizzed for the back of his neck.

As if he was stooping to adjust his sandals, he bent over to dodge the projectile, the movement fluid and effortless. As he stood back up to his full height, he called, "what are you planning?"

"You will see!" Her voice followed her movements through the forest, and he tracked her signal. But why would he wait for her?

He pushed off the earth towards her, weaving through branches and leaping from tree to tree, rapidly closing in on her.

A rain of weapons suddenly burst from the nearest clump of canopy, and he had to abruptly change his path to avoid the danger they posed. More knives flew from a number of directions, and he ducked and weaved to avoid them as well.

Only then did he sense that she was coming for him.

They exchanged a flurry of blows but neither could gain the upper hand; he knew how to dodge her strikes and she knew how the gentle fist style worked and how to get around it. It was a strange dance as they teetered on branches high above the ground, spinning and whirling and sliding to try to come out on top.

She disengaged when he found an opening and tried to hit her shoulder, and as she leaped backwards towards the earth she summoned another hail of weapons from a scroll. Neji had to duck close to the bark to protect himself, hoping the tree would withstand the impacts and shield him.

When the weapons stopped flying he pursued her again.

This time she caught him off guard; she'd managed to set a near-invisible tripwire ahead that his eyes couldn't detect, and he slid to a halt just short of the wire. _What was it a trigger for?_ He scanned the area for threats and only sensed her presence some distance ahead. It was worrisome that he couldn't detect any traps. When had she become so skilled?

In a flash, she was careening into him, colliding with his chest and sending them both flying towards the ground.

"What the-!" he shouted as they grappled in mid-air. In just a handful of moments he had her trapped with a knife to her throat as they landed heavily.

"Didn't see me, did you?" she panted, smiling victoriously even though she had been defeated.

"I don't even know what you did, I was more focused on detecting traps you set." He was also breathing hard, though part of it was that he'd had the wind knocked out of his lungs from her impact.

"It's a new technique I've been working on, using elastic cords to propel me forward at great speeds." She shrugged, "although I don't think it's got any practical use in the field, after seeing it in action."

"It was unexpected, to say the least."

"Are you going to take your knife away from my throat now?" she asked, an edge creeping into her voice.

He smirked, "and what if I say no?"

She sniffed and raised her head, pulling herself up and looking at him out of the corner of her eye where he stood behind her. "Are you challenging me?"

He stood there a moment more, then lowered his hand down and backed away, heart pounding thickly in his chest. He'd come to the sudden realization that she was close to him, close enough to feel the heat of her skin and smell the scent of her hair.

"Of course not," he scoffed, looking away to hide his embarrassment.

"Are you sure?" she stepped towards him, blinking slowly in the way that she knew rattled his resolve.

"I…uh…" the words would not come out of his throat, and he stood there gaping like a fish out of water.

She laughed then, and pulled out a scroll to summon water for them both. "Oh geez Hyuga, get over yourself. Let's sit and talk about what happened."

And they did, they discussed every minute detail of their exchange and what was good and what could have been better. They ran it again, so he could see just how she managed to rocket into his chest, then they practiced close combat drills. He became increasingly aware of how her body flowed through the stances, and try as he might to push them away, he couldn't get the thought of her body off his mind. It was like some kind of torture, to see her moving like that and not have the opportunity to appreciate it fully. Of course, he would never dare dream of forcing himself upon her; not only would it reflect terribly on his clan, but she would also beat him to a pulp.

Perhaps that's why he was so utterly terrified of making any sort of move on her, even though he was sure she wanted him to.

By the time they'd finished, dark was rapidly approaching.

"Tomorrow again?" she asked as she always did as they prepared to depart.

"Of course," he replied, running his fingers through his hair and retying it into its typical low ponytail.

"Okay," and she acted as if she was going to turn and walk home, but she didn't.

He looked at her almost shyly as he stood there like a fool. "What's wrong?" he asked.

It was very odd, he thought, that she just stood there and did not offer an answer. So he stepped closer.

"Is everything okay?" he asked, more forcefully this time. "What's wrong?" He stepped up to put a hand on her shoulder.

She looked from his hand to his face then back again, and his heart fluttered madly again. "Neji, I…" she trailed off.

The moment he'd waited for was upon him, oh Kami what should he do? He had never kissed a girl before, hadn't even seriously _thought_ of kissing a girl until this moment. What should he do? He ran through every piece of advice he'd ever heard on kissing (mostly from Kiba and Ino) and tried to put the precious little he knew of kissing into action.

Of course, he only made it halfway across the space before he stopped himself, so utterly terrified that he couldn't do anything but stand there numbly as all the thoughts of kissing whirled through his head.

She must have pitied him because she closed the distance of her own accord, and when their lips met he flew backwards, so entirely overwhelmed that he didn't know what to do with himself besides cut off their contact. It was everything he had hoped it could be, yet he was so trapped by his own mind that he couldn't just let it happen. He thought of how his uncle would think of him if he knew, what Hinata and Naruto and everyone else would say. He worried about how he'd done even though it had lasted a moment. Did she want more, was he awful, did he do something wrong, did he-

"I'm sorry," she whispered, and before he could reach out to her to stop her she sprinted into the dusk.

 _You fool_ , he said as he stood there like a dumbstruck idiot. _What have you done? Damn!_

As he tried to catch her through the waning light, only one thought buzzed in his head.

 _She's never going to want to kiss me again._


	28. 73 - I Can't

I seriously love writing distressed, uncomfortable Neji. Something tells me he wouldn't have any experience in these things before her because he had better things to worry about (aka training, hating the main branch, griping about destiny etc etc etc)

Enjoy! Leave a review please 3

 **Day Seventy-Three** – 10 December 2017

 **Prompt** – I Can't

 **Summary** – Neji can't kiss pt. II.

 **Notes** – Time skip era

 **Word Count** – 1056

* * *

 **I Can't**

He chased after her, but he couldn't catch her before she barricaded herself in her apartment.

"Tenten!" he called. "Please, I'm sorry! I don't know what happened!"

There was no answer from the other side of her door when he knocked and knocked again.

 _You're an idiot,_ he scolded himself. _Out of all the things you could have done, why did you have to pull away?_

"I'm sorry," he said again, not knowing if she was even listening, and he didn't dare use his Byakugan to see if she was there. That would have been just another nail on his coffin at that point. "I don't know what I'm doing."

There was still no answer.

"Kami," he muttered as he leaned on her door, utterly helpless. "I'm such an idiot."

 _All right then,_ he thought bitterly. _I'll just stay here until she comes out, no matter how long it takes._

He turned his back and leaned on the door, letting himself slowly slide backwards until he was sitting on her doorstep, slumped over in defeat.

Of course, she would think that she'd done something wrong; he would have thought the same thing if she'd pulled away. She might even think that it was her fault that he pulled away.

"This is your own fault," he hissed at himself. "You idiot!"

The red and orange of the sunset faded into deep purple, then into the inky blackness of total night. He sat and fiddled with his thumbs, too nervous to try to do much else. He spoke out every so often to see if she would respond to him, but still there was no answer. Eventually he stopped talking; she knew him well enough by now to know that he wasn't going to abandon his goals so easily.

When an hour had passed, he sighed and hung his head, mumbling into the collar of his shirt. "It wasn't your fault, I'm just so inexperienced I didn't know what to do…"

At that, he heard the click of the lock on her door, and he fell backwards at the sudden disappearance of the solid wood at his back. He crossed his forearms in front of his face, fearing some sort of blow, but when nothing came he opened his eyes and looked up at her form standing over him.

"What did you say?" she asked cautiously.

He let his arms fall on top of his stomach, not daring to move off the ground. "I said, it wasn't your fault."

She sat down next to him, fixing him with a calculated gaze as she mulled over his words. "You acted like I had done something wrong, I thought…"

"No, Tenten," he whispered, shaking his head as he propped himself up on one elbow to face her. "That's not it at all."

He noticed that her eyes were red and puffy, as if she'd been crying. That alone added ten times the guilt he already felt about his actions.

"What happened then?"

He looked down at the wooden boards of the porch. "I just got so flustered, I…" he looked up sheepishly. "It sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?"

"You said you didn't know what you're doing," she stated softly. He nodded.

"I have no experience in these things," he admitted. "It's not as if you can train to know how to kiss someone like you can train to fight."

They must have looked ridiculous, her sitting on her doormat next to him as he lay awkwardly over the threshold, partly inside and partly outside her apartment, having a late-night conversation about kissing. Then again, there were stranger things.

"You've not kissed someone?" she asked, a look of incredulity etched into her features.

He shook his head again, not daring to answer with words. She sighed lightly.

"Well," she said, the corner of her mouth lifting, "that would explain a lot."

"I'm sorry," he said for the umpteenth time, "I didn't intend to hurt your feelings."

"Of course you didn't," she replied, "and I was an idiot to believe that you did. I know you."

He sat fully upright and crossed his legs, sitting just outside of her entrance. "I'm glad you actually came out. I was going to sit here all night if you didn't." He shot her a half-hearted smile.

"I figured as much, when you sat down on the doorstep." She stood and offered her a hand. "Would you like to come in and have some tea?"

He took her hand, but politely declined. "I need to get home," he said. "They'll be wondering where I am."

"Right," she said, then looked at him as she had before.

 _Oh no,_ he thought, _not again._

Before she could invite him to her lips again, he gently took hold of her shoulders. "Tenten," he murmured, "please don't take this the wrong way, but I can't."

"Why?" she asked, though there was no hurt in her eyes this time. She seemed to understand.

He felt his cheeks redden, and said, "would you be surprised if I said I was afraid?"

"I don't think I would be surprised," she admitted, "though I would ask what you were afraid of."

He let his hands drop to his sides. "I don't know," he sighed. "I think I need to figure that out first, but I promise it is not your fault. You know I care for you deeply, it's just that-"

"Neji," she cut him off, silencing the rest of his explanation. "I understand what you're saying, I do. Maybe talking to some of your friends would help?"

He nodded. "That's what I was thinking. I really would like another shot and not mess it up, but I might need a little bit of advice before I do so."

She laughed and agreed. "All right then, go home, Hyuga. I'll see you tomorrow for training."

He nodded again and turned to head back to the compound, but not before he paused and said, "thank you, Tenten."

"Anytime, Neji," she replied as she shut her door. He was left with yet another foolish grin on his face as he turned for home.

It was the next morning that he woke up to a rather exuberant Lee shaking him out of his bed. "Get up, Neji! We have a mission! We're headed for the Land of Frost!"

* * *

Follow up is Day 84 - Out (in the) Cold!


	29. 72 - Mischief Managed

This may or may not be written from personal experience...

I hadn't visited modern Team Gai, and what better way to dive into debauchery and managing mischief than with winter sports?

This one was honestly hard to write... you can't give me a prompt so clearly from a _very different_ fandom and expect me to connect it directly with Nejiten. Regardless, this one was fun. Enjoy 3

 **Day Seventy-Two** – 11 December 2017

 **Prompt** – Mischief Managed

 **Summary** – Troublesome kids and drunken skiing…

 **Notes** – Modern AU

 **Word Count** – 1971

* * *

 **Mischief Managed**

As all great nights do, it started with a few drinks.

"Here," Lee handed me a shot of tequila. "Start off the night well, right?"

Neji raised his shot and Lee – the lightweight – raised his beer. Glass and aluminum clacked together and the liquor trailed a hot line into my stomach.

"Jesus," Neji grabbed the tequila bottle to read the label. "What did you buy, Lee? Jet fuel?"

"On the contrary!" Lee exclaimed as he took another sip of his drink. "This is one of the best budget tequilas around!"

"Lee's right, Neji. I don't think you're used to drinking heavy stuff." I nodded matter-of-factly. "Great choice, Lee. The toffee notes are quite nice." I held out my glass for more. It was really a nice tequila for what the money brought.

"Hn," Neji grumbled, and I had to suppress the urge to giggle at his expression. "Whatever. Give me a couple more so I can switch to beer for the rest of the night."

Lee refilled our glasses and two more shots went down the gullet.

"That hits the spot!" I laughed as the fire in my stomach burned comfortably, and I gestured for more. "Once we get through with these we can go out."

Neji wrinkled his nose at the bottle and instead reached for a beer. "No more, I'm good with beer."

I giggled again as I knocked back my last shot. "You're just a baby is all," I said jovially.

"Don't pregame too hard," Neji warned.

I had to scoff at his concern, though I appreciated the gesture all the same. "Not on your life, Hyuga. That was barely a warm-up."

"Yeah!" Lee came to my defense, slamming an empty can down on the table. "We both know Tenten can quite handily drink us under the table!"

He sniffed and crossed his arms. "Don't remind me," he grumbled, even as he started to smile. The last time we drank was still a sore spot for him; having his best buddy and his girlfriend drag his carcass home was not the most _proper_ thing to happen to him. And if there was one thing I knew, it was that Neji loved his propriety.

Thank goodness he'd taken the defeat well. I drank twice as much as he had that night, and while I'd been drunk, I could at least coherently navigate home. Him? Not so much.

"All right!" Lee yanked our backpacks off the counter and began piling in cans of beer. "Let us go have some fun!"

"Easy there, Lee," I laughed. "You only want four or so cans per person, maybe less for you. You know you can't drink much in the first place, and at altitude you get drunk even faster."

He slowed down and put only a handful of cans into each even as he nodded in agreement. "Of course, you are right, Tenten. You are the expert here, after all."

I pushed off from the barstool I sat on in the kitchen and shoved my snow pants back down. "You are absolutely right on that one."

Lee handed Neji and I our backpacks and we headed for the mudroom to shrug on our jackets and helmets and gloves where they sat dripping melted snow from earlier that day. We did a last-minute check to make sure we had everything, then strapped on our boots and headed out the door.

"It doesn't look like it will be busy tonight," Neji remarked, shaking his black mane out over his shoulders as he reached for his helmet hanging on the rack outside.

"Nah, not with it being a Sunday." I shoved my own helmet down onto my head and adjusted my goggles to sit on top before reaching for my board. "Gear up, the lifts are moving."

Lee exuberantly yanked his skis from the rack and shoved his boots into the clips, while Neji secured his helmet and did the same, albeit more subdued. I grabbed my board and strapped a foot in, leaving the other free to propel myself forward over the snow.

"Alright, everyone got ski passes?" Neji asked as we adjusted our gear and prepared to head for the ski lift. When we nodded an affirmation, he said, "right then, let's go. Looks like we'll be one of the first on the runs tonight."

We slid the few feet from the front door to the ski lift, tugging on jackets and gloves to make sure everything was tight and secure. Neji and Lee dragged themselves forward with their poles. I always thought it was rather awkward to manage two skis and a set of poles which was why I opted for my snowboard. Keep it simple on the mountain, that's a rule to live by.

We slid to a halt at the front of the line, waiting for another chair to come around. When the attendant scanned our passes and motioned for us to move forward we did so excitedly, eager to be out on the slopes again. What's more, night skiing was so much more fun than its daytime counterpart. Sure, fewer runs were open at night, but there was just something about skiing in the dark that added a sense of adventure.

"I cannot wait!" Lee exclaimed as the chair came around, sweeping the three of us off our feet and carrying us up the mountain. "My first time night skiing! This will be so much fun!"

I reached into my pocket to untangle my headphones and plug them into my phone, securing a bud into my far ear so I could listen to music and listen to them at the same time. "You'll see, it's a lot of fun, especially when you're drinking!" As if on cue, Neji cracked open one of his beers and began to drain it as quickly as he could swallow.

"Well done!" Lee cried as he reached for his own. The two shortly finished off their first can and crushed the empty containers down to put them back in their bags. "We shall see how long this lasts!"

The lift deposited us at the top of the mountain, and we slid down the slope to the top of the runs. "All right," I said, looking at the trail signs. "Let's stick with greens for now, until we get warmed up."

"At the rate we're going the warm up will be all we get," Neji said, and I could see his cheeks were already tinged pink. We hadn't even gone down the mountain once yet and he was starting to feel the effects of his drinks.

"I think you mean at the rate _you're_ going, Hyuga." I laughed, though I could feel the buzz settling in nicely over my mind too. "Let's go then! No time to waste!"

I shoved off to get a head start so I could strap my other boot in before they caught up, and when they reached me we were ready to head out. I turned up my music for the ride down and as we picked up speed I could feel the high rush over me again. There was nothing like the wind whipping your face as you carved into the freshly groomed snow with the edge of your board, good tunes in your ears, with your best friends beside you.

Life was good.

I looked over at Lee and Neji, who were keeping pace with me. They had less time on the mountain than I did, and Lee had only ever been a handful of times, but he was a quick learner and good on his feet. Neji had been up with me enough to know how to keep up, even if he got a little out of control sometimes. I could see how they both grinned like a fool as the wind flattened their jackets and pants to the front of their bodies, the backside of the fabric snapping like flags in their wake. Neji's hair flew in the wind, waving wildly behind him in a chaotic dance that looked almost like a trail of smoke coming from underneath his helmet.

Yes, life was good.

We rejoined at the bottom of the mountain and headed for the lift again, breathing hard and trying to rub some life back into numb cheeks and noses.

"I knew I should have brought my bandana out here," I grumbled. "Can't believe I left it back home."

"What are you talking about?!" Lee shouted victoriously. "We will never give in! The cold air just makes us tougher in the end!"

Neji reached out to put a hand on his shoulder. "Chill out there, Rambo," he laughed. "Not everyone is as hardcore as you are." The lift came around again to take us up.

All three of us had a competition to see who could drink the next beer the quickest, which was a mistake for them. I knew how to properly shotgun a beer, so they hadn't even finished half of their can before I crunched my empty one down on my thigh.

"Amateurs," I gloated. "Get on my level!" Lee gaped at me in some sort of reverence as Neji looked at me from Lee's other side, admiration and adoration clear in his eyes.

"You alright there babe?" I asked playfully.

"Just remembering why I love you is all," he replied sweetly even as Lee clenched his fist excitedly, punching the air and exclaiming something about the "passion of youth," or something. It was his new catchphrase, as Neji and I liked to joke.

We turned the opposite way this time to ride down the other side of the mountain, flying down the wide-open runs with reckless abandon. The mountain and its sisters surrounding us seemed to look down on us disapprovingly, shining under the glare of the moon and the stars in the clear night, but we couldn't care less. What more could a person want besides good company and good drinks?

We continued like that for some amount of time; the alcohol took hold in our minds and blended the runs together so they became difficult to distinguish in memory. We finished off the beer in our bags and then skied until the mountain itself was shut down for the night, laughing and jeering and singing our way down like the ridiculous, mismatched trio of blockheads that we were. We burst into laughter when we had to try to convince the lift operator that we hadn't been drinking, and though we succeeded we joked on that ride up that the poor dude definitely wasn't convinced but he wasn't paid enough to care.

I was ridiculously thankful that we rented a condo just steps from the lift, since we were done by the time the runs closed. I don't know how we made it back to the condo in one piece that night with all of our gear, but we did. We stripped clumsily out of our winter coats and warm clothing and flopped onto the couch, reaching for more beer as we did so, draping ourselves over each other with zero regard for personal space. Even Neji, the one who disliked any sort of physical contact with anyone besides me, was lounging across both Lee and I, singing scraps of some song he'd heard on the radio that had gotten stuck in his head.

It was even more of a miracle that all three of us made it to our beds that night; somewhere beyond us turning on the Xbox and drunkenly raging at online players on Call of Duty I couldn't remember anything. Of course, we all woke up feeling like death and subsequently shared the toilet as we all puked our guts up from the hangovers, but then again, what were best friends for?

Yes, life was good.


	30. 71 - Obsession

Sorry my lovely readers, it's been a rough couple of days. I had finals, and I'm sure everyone can imagine what finals week is like (or knows the pain personally).

I've also been rewatching Naruto (for accuracy in these stories) and MAN was pre-Chunin exam Neji a gigantic fucking twat. I had to remind myself that he turned out to be a really good person because I was getting belligerent watching the show and his stupidity.

Enjoy and drop a review please :3

 **Day Seventy-One** – 14 December 2017

 **Prompt** – Obsession

 **Summary** – Exactly when did Neji stop being a gigantic dick and start acting like a decent human being?

 **Notes** – Right after Chunin exams where the boi got his ass busted.

 **Word Count** – 1108

* * *

 **Obsession**

You could say I had a sort of obsession with him, but come on, who wouldn't?

For one, he was flawless, not a hair out of place (literally). He was toned and strong and sure of himself like no one else I knew, not to mention his skill in battle, even at our young age.

He never put a foot out of place, and he could see things with those eyes that a person like me couldn't even dream of. He knew how everyone was feeling at a glance, and could figure out the best way to work with a person, no matter who they were. I had a hard time believing it was just the Byakugan that gave him that ability. No, it seemed to be a natural thing for him in the first place.

Yes, he was absolute pristine, the pinnacle of what every lady hoped to attain in a partner.

And yet…

I would never date him.

Why?

He was too perfect. Too pristine. Too cold. Too _prude._ When someone got to be like him they started thinking their elevated status was so far beyond everyone else that there wasn't a need for them. He knew best, always, even when he was wrong.

It was irksome. No, it was _enraging._

I knew every piece of him and though I couldn't ever deny my feelings for him, he was still a brat. A Hyuga brat.

But then, he changed.

Perhaps it was the concussion Naruto gave him when the kid dug his knuckles practically through his jaw. Perhaps it was the note that his father had left him (and that Hiashi hadn't given him until just that moment). Maybe it was a combination of a whole lot of other things, but one thing was for certain.

He had changed.

Even when I had visited him in the hospital room under the coliseum after his match, before everything with the Sand began, he was a different person.

For one, he was crying, and Neji Hyuga did not cry. Second, he was in need of comfort, and Neji Hyuga never looked to anyone for comfort, ever. Was he upset that he lost the match?

I couldn't believe it. Sure, we had our moments where the atmosphere was charged with some unspoken feeling, but it never progressed beyond that. And really, I could have been imagining things too; he was a difficult person to read. So imagine my surprise when I walk in the door expecting his usual aloofness and instead he reached out for my hand as tears were spilling down his cheeks.

I almost called the medics back in, that's what happened.

"Neji?" I said, a little panicked. "Are you okay?"

He gingerly sat up, still holding on to my hand, and wiped his eyes. "I think I will be," he murmured. There was a pause, an awkward one (if I'm being honest), as he still held on to my hand and looked down at his feet from where he sat on the bed. The only reason why I didn't pull away was because his mind was somewhere else entirely. It wasn't as if he was focusing on my hand, he was relying on me to be an anchor.

Well, I could do that for him.

As he sat there lost in his own thoughts I noticed the scroll. It was tucked next to his body protectively, and his name was written prominently in black ink on the front.

Just as I was about to ask him what it was, he spoke. As usual, he knew what I was going to say and decided to spare me the breath to ask.

"The scroll is from my father," he said plainly. "He wrote it the day he died."

He took the scroll in his other hand and draped it over his lap. I could make out a few of the sentences even though they were upside down, and the truth came to me as a shock.

"He didn't die for the main family. He died defying his fate. So, maybe," his hand tightened unconsciously as he spoke, "we can choose whatever path we decide is best."

"Well of course, Neji," I replied. "It would be a bleak existence thinking you couldn't control your own life."

I made sure the statement was pointed and direct; he'd been driving himself mad with his "destiny" garbage since we were first put on a team together. I saw how it ate at him and ground his resolve down to dust. And though he couldn't be blamed for his interpretation, I had always taken issue with his absolutism. It was infuriating.

"I don't know what to think," he said. "But I do know that something has changed fundamentally in me. The world just spun around so quick I can't keep up with it."

"Could just be that Naruto rung your bell pretty good," I replied dryly.

The comment would have irked the old Neji into defending his pride, his absolute mastery of himself and his abilities, but he just nodded and agreed. "He did hit me pretty hard," he admitted, reaching up to rub his chin.

My hand was still in his. And I hadn't felt the need to pull away.

"You have changed." I said bluntly. "You're a different person than the one who walked into the arena."

Perhaps the world really had changed for him, because he agreed to that too. "I feel like I'm a different person, Tenten."

He awkwardly rolled the scroll back up with his free hand then sat there numbly.

Only after a good chunk of time had passed did I disentangle myself from his grasp. He promptly reddened and blubbered something about not knowing he was holding my hand.

"Get over yourself, Hyuga," I said flatly. "You needed it. Now lay back down before you hurt your head more."

He frowned a little at that, but did not complain as he curled back up on the cot. I turned to leave; I had just wanted to make sure he was okay. It seemed that, despite his injuries, he was far better than when I had seen him last.

"Thank you," he murmured as I crossed the threshold. I glanced back once and noticed the idiot was smiling like he'd just figured out some sort of grand secret or the inner workings of the universe.

"Just get out of bed soon, I need my sparring partner back," I retorted, though it was difficult to keep my own grin out of my voice, because I was also smiling like a fool.

Yes, he had changed, and he had changed for the better.

* * *

Also I feel like my ideas are a bit lackluster recently so if you have something specific you'd like me to write about let me know!


	31. 70 - 67 Percent

This one was difficult because the prompt is so freaking vague so hopefully I did it justice!

Enjoy! _**And send me ideas if you have them!**_

 **Day Seventy** – 15 December 2017

 **Prompt** – 67%

 **Summary** – The morning after the first intimate experience.

 **Notes** – Follow up of Day 84, Out (in the) Cold.

 **Word Count** – 1668

* * *

 **67%**

Waking up after that first night together was absolutely strange. I haven't had a sensation quite like it since. It was like I was clawing through layer after layer of thick, velvety cloth, pulling myself to the surface. That's how profound my calm and relaxation was.

And exhaustion, of course.

Initially everything was blurred and fuzzy because I couldn't get my eyes to focus on anything. It felt like I had been drinking too much, but I wasn't sick with a stomach ache or headache. Just drowsiness. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I wasn't drunk though. After completely and totally immersing myself into her body there was no other way to aptly describe it.

I shifted slowly onto an elbow to take in the scene around me.

Piercing sunlight filtered in from a crack in the curtains. Embers smoldered in the fireplace, reminiscent of the large blaze that lit the space the night before. A thick, fur-lined blanket was strewn across the stones in front of the glowing ashes, and memories of the night before poured into my head.

 _Skin, her skin, my skin, pulling and sliding against each other, glowing bronze in the firelight. Oh, to finally be able to put my lips on her skin, to touch it, to feel it beneath my fingers! The fur was soft and thick on my shoulder blades as she rode me from where we were tangled up on the floor. I could finally grasp her hips and take my pleasure even as she took hers._

That's right, we'd somehow managed to get on the floor on the blanket. I couldn't remember how many times we came together that night, but it was enough to where I had lost count. We were insatiable, to say the least, and we had both ached for a moment like that for years.

Her bra and underwear were strewn about the foot of the bed, as were my own undergarments. I could remember the utter satisfaction, the _triumph_ of finally being able to remove them from her body.

The decorative pillows were also flung across the room; I vaguely remember tearing them off the bed in an effort to make space for her as I buried my face in her throat, pinning her down when she told me I could be more aggressive if I wished.

Who would have thought she liked it that rough? Although, it made sense. She wasn't exactly a delicate sort of lady. Somewhere down the line she had gained plenty of experience, and I shuddered to think of all the things she had done, the sounds she'd forced from my throat, deep and primal. I couldn't even believe I was capable of making such noises.

She'd stripped away all of my expectations and replaced them with something far better. What's more, she removed the cloak of propriety from my shoulders and let me be me, Neji Hyuga, not the Hyuga prodigy, not the cousin of the heir to the throne nor the nephew of the leader of one of the most powerful clans in Konoha. No, I was me, and that was more freeing than anything she could have said to me.

I shifted to gaze down on her sleeping form. There were a few marks on her collarbone and chest, and I'm sure a few bite marks on her skin on other places, but there was nothing that would show above her normal garb, especially with our cold weather gear. Her lips were a little fuller than normal from the borderline abuse I subjected them to, but it was just another part of her that I loved.

Yes, I loved her. Somewhere between our missions and our teamwork and our never-ending partnership, I had grown to love her. No, I was not _in love._ That was some childish coverup for lust or infatuation. I knew the difference because I had been in love a handful of times, and I was absolutely sure that I loved her, in every sense of the word.

As if my thinking disturbed her, she slowly stretched like a cat in the sun, and blinked the world into focus.

"Good morning," she whispered.

"Good morning," I leaned down to brush a strand of hair out of her eyes as I repeated her greeting.

"You look good," she murmured as she smiled, knowing there was a myriad of ways I could interpret it. I could look healthy, well-rested, or desirable, based on that three-word comment. In reality, she probably meant it in every way I had thought.

"I am good," I chuckled softly, "more than good, really. I don't think I've ever slept that well in my life."

She stretched again then sat up, and the blankets slipped from her torso. Of course, I had to appreciate the view, and she did not shy away from my gaze.

"You are a fiend," she said, low and suggestive.

"I'm just appreciating the finer things in life, Tenten." I met her eyes then and they sparkled with understanding. She was much more than a pair of breasts, something to pleasure myself with. I appreciated her for everything that she was, even with all her flaws. It would have been a horribly mad idea to think I could have her another way. I didn't want her another way.

Her eyes also roved across my body, and I didn't feel the need to hide my face in embarrassment as I used to. When she remarked on this, I shrugged. "After last night I don't think I have anything to hide from you."

"You were just afraid of what would happen if you let yourself go," she said bluntly, and I had to agree.

"Weren't you like that once?" I asked.

She pulled the covers back and stood, picking up articles of clothing and tossing them my way if they belonged to me, or tucking them under her arm if they were hers. "Once, but it helps to have someone guide you and tell you that it's not a bad thing to let go. It's not shameful."

I copied her as we both began to dress, knowing that our sensei and our teammate would be worried if we didn't meet up with them soon. "I agree," I murmured as I buttoned on my shirt.

"Let's just get going, we can worry about cleaning ourselves up when we get into town." She was right; the blizzard had delayed us rendezvousing with the rest of our team, and we had a mission to start today. The sooner we got to them, the better. "By the way, nice bedhead, Hyuga."

I reached up to run my fingers through my hair and was shocked to feel a mess of knots in the usually tame strands. "What happened?" I asked as I furiously dug through my bag for my brush; there was no way we would be leaving with my hair like this.

"Probably happened with the hundred times I got my fingers tangled in your hair to kiss you," she said bluntly as she raked a brush through her own locks. "Your hair is so fine that if you blow on it too hard it knots up."

Thankfully most of the tangles came out with little struggle, and we quickly scrubbed our teeth and put on deodorant, then dawned our heavy jackets and turned to leave, eager to be on the road.

As we were about to open the door she suddenly pinned me to the wall and kissed me out of the blue, furious and needy. I was more than happy to oblige her and we were locked in that embrace for a few minutes. When she pulled away both of us were panting and I was trying to get my head to stop spinning.

"Thank you for a great night, Neji," she winked. "We should do it again sometime."

"If you insist, Tenten." I grinned foolishly as I opened the door for her, doing a last sweep of the room before shutting it behind us.

The same old man sat at the desk and checked us out. He was quite happy to have filled the last empty room in his inn that night, and waved cheerfully as we stepped out into the snow.

It was blinding, with the fresh snowfall, but we quickly adjusted and made for the village. The sun had just fully emerged from the horizon and everything was tinged in orange and gold. We made good time to the village since it was only a few more miles up the road.

Lee and Gai Sensei were waiting at the gates, and when we explained the situation (after much loud exclamations on both their parts about how happy they were that we'd arrived) they agreed that it was much better for us to have waited. I couldn't quite meet either of their eyes, knowing how we had occupied our time, but neither of them took notice of it.

We set out for the northern part of the village where we were put to work on a long escort mission, and as the day dragged on both Tenten and I lagged behind. We had spent much of the previous night engaged in other activities, and the previous days before that travelling fast and far. It would have been a smarter choice to sleep last night but…

"Neji! Tenten!" Gai Sensei shouted over his shoulder at us. "What is the holdup! You two look like you're operating at sixty-seven percent, at best!"

"Apologies, sensei," I said quickly. "The battle to get through the storm last night was a bit more strenuous than we thought it would be."

"Nonsense! Exhaustion is just a weakness, we push through until dawn!" He galloped away with Lee on his heels, not noticing the look Tenten and I shared at my comments.

Either way, I knew one thing for sure. I would spend every night like that with Tenten. Who needed sleep anyways?


	32. 69 - Annoyance

I LOVED this one! This was a lovely request and OF COURSE I will be writing more of them like this! Emi was a simple name, and I liked it and it stuck. She's a firecracker!

Enjoy and drop a review if you haven't! :3 and if you have something you want to see, _**tell me!**_

 **Day Sixty-Nine** – 16 December 2017

 **Prompt** – Annoyance

 **Summary** – All is calm…except when it's not. Which is all the time when you're chasing a kid.

 **Notes** – Obviously postwar, way in the future.

 **Word Count** – 1545

* * *

 **Annoyance**

For once, everything was at peace. The clock ticked quietly on the nightstand, the new rays of sunshine were just beginning to peek through the blinds. Her body was close and warm, relaxed. There was no fear or anxiety or helplessness, just calm.

Which, of course, never lasted long in their household.

The loud thumping of feet was the first indication that she was awake, but they were so lost in their dreams that they didn't hear her approach. For shinobi of their caliber it was rather odd, but then again, no one truly expects to be attacked in their own bed.

In a blur of dark hair and pink flannel she careened into the space between her parents, laughing and giggling like a madman. "Mommy! Daddy!"

Tenten jerked awake when a closed fist jammed into her nose from the uncontrolled flailing of the toddler, heart pounding. It was never pleasant to be woken like this, even though it seemed half the time Emi was their alarm clock in the morning nowadays.

Neji was also startled into consciousness, though for an entirely different reason. A tiny, bony heel had managed to catch him square in the crotch, and he curled into a ball in immense pain, groaning.

"Emi, please calm down!" Tenten leaned over to trap the uncontrolled limbs that flew in every direction, trying to mask the annoyance of yet another early morning. Only then did she see her husband writhing in agony. "Neji, what happened?"

"I'm fine," he breathed around the nausea in his gut. "She just caught me in the jewels is all…" And with that he rolled off the bed and onto the floor, trying to hold the pain at bay.

Emi giggled and clapped her hands at the game. "Play?" she asked sweetly.

"Not quite yet babes," Tenten murmured as she tucked the thick strands of inky hair behind the little girl's ears. "Mommy and Daddy need to get up first."

Neji clawed his way up from the floor and halfheartedly leaned against the mattress, tears streaming from his eyes. "Good aim, kid," he grunted and extended his knuckles towards his daughter, which Emi promptly knocked her own against as she laughed.

"Don't encourage that, unless you want her to keep doing it!" Tenten admonished as she fixed the zipper on the girl's onesie. "Are you crying?"

"Good aim is good aim," he replied, "and no, I am not! I just didn't exactly expect to wake up getting nailed in the nads."

"Nads!" Emi laughed as she repeated the word over and over, much to Neji's pleasure and Tenten's chagrin.

"She's going to be repeating that all day now," Tenten moaned.

"It's a good word to learn!" Neji pulled himself to his knees then stood, stretching his back, even as Emi jumped to wrap her hands around his stomach. "Good morning babes!"

"Good morning Daddy!" she excitedly replied.

"Are you excited to go to school today?" he asked as he kneeled down so he was eye level with her, planting a kiss on her forehead as she squealed.

"I love school!" she exclaimed, and reached her arms up as an indication that she wanted to be held. "Up, please!"

"You are so polite, babes," Neji crooned as he hoisted the girl up and set her on his hip, then turned to Tenten who still groggily lay in bed, watching them. "My love, what would you like for breakfast?"

"Whatever you're making is perfect for me," she murmured, smiling at them.

He leaned down to kiss her good morning, expertly juggling Emi's weight as he did so. "Eggs it is."

"Eggs!" Emi repeated excitedly.

Neji turned and bounced Emi as he left the bedroom, excitedly saying, "yes, eggs!" and laughing with Emi as she giggled, most likely from him kissing the top of her head.

Everything was as it should be.

After a few more moments of gathering her thoughts, she rolled out of bed and slid her feet into her slippers, gathering her hair up into a ponytail as she followed her kid and her husband into the kitchen. He was furiously scrambling eggs as Emi sat on the floor, playing with a pair of sunglasses, surrounded by small, dull shuriken she liked to toss around.

"Well babes, with eyes like that you can get used to wearing those. Hyuga eyes burn so easily," Tenten said as she slid into her usual seat at the table. Neji placed a hot cup of tea in her hands, and before he could escape she wrapped an arm around his waist. "Thank you."

"Anytime, my love," he returned her embrace before resuming his cooking. Emi watched the exchange from her place on the floor, pale, lavender eyes taking in every movement they made. Tenten often thought that's how Neji must have been as a child, so observant it was unsettling.

"I have a feeling she's going to be just like you," Tenten commented.

"How so?" Neji looked up from the cooking pan with a questioning expression.

"Strong and observant. _If_ she wishes to be a fighter," Tenten emphasized the if, "she will be exceptional."

He nodded thoughtfully and replied, "well of course. She's the daughter of the Hyuga clan head and the most knowledgeable weapon's mistress in the entire village, someone who can hit a thousand targets and not miss once," he grinned. "If we made a kid that wasn't exceptional I would be surprised."

Tenten leaned back and sipped her tea, agreeing with what he said. It only made sense that two of Konoha's highest caliber ninja would produce children with an aptitude for being a shinobi. Naruto's children had shown promise at a tender age as well, as had Sasuke's. Emi was following in their footsteps.

"Emi, what do you want to be when you grow up?" Tenten asked her daughter, not truly expecting a substantial answer, but she was old enough to form her own independent thoughts and ideas.

"Ninja!" Emi shrieked as she picked up two or three of the shuriken and hurled them at Neji. They bounced harmlessly off his flannel pants, but her aim had been good; they all hit him.

"Emi," Neji said sternly, "we do not throw shuriken at other people."

The child tucked her head sheepishly to her chest. "Sowwy, Daddy."

"See what I mean?" Tenten had just seen in no uncertain terms her daughter's capabilities. She doubted any but a handful of truly gifted shinobi could throw anything with that much accuracy at such a young age.

"I understand. But," Neji turned to slide a plate of hot eggs in front of her as he fixed Emi's plate with some peaches and yogurt, "we will not force her into something she doesn't want to do."

"Of course," Tenten nodded, knowing full well what he meant. They knew the horrors of being shinobi first-hand; they'd almost lost their lives several times over in the line of duty. It was hazardous, to say the least, not to mention the mental toll was just as bad, if not worse.

"It most certainly has changed since our days, though," Neji admitted. "When I was her age my father had been drilling me through forms and stances for a year."

"It definitely has changed, and for the better." She watched as he subconsciously rubbed the curse mark on his forehead, thinking of other things that had changed.

"There are many things she's destined for," he finally said, "though she will face them only if she's willing and able."

"That doesn't mean she shouldn't face hardship," Tenten said softly.

Neji sat across from her and slid Emi's plate in front of her where she sat next to him. "No, hardship teaches lessons. It just shouldn't be what any of us went through."

They ate in silence for the meals, reflecting on those words.

Only when they were finished and Tenten had cleared the table did they speak again.

"She will be fine," Neji assured her, speaking to her deepest fears that he knew lurked in her mind. "She's our kid, she's tough as nails and sharp as a tack. I don't think we need to overly concern ourselves with what may or may not come to pass."

Tenten felt the reassuring weight of his hand on her shoulder, and she nodded. "You're right," she replied. "She's our kid. I don't think anything will stop her."

"Of course not, right Emi?" Neji asked animatedly; Emi had begun to pick up on the dampened mood and was worriedly looking from one face to the other.

"Right!" she shrieked, and they were both laughing as he picked her up and spun her around, letting their hair fan out behind them like the tail of a peacock.

"Okay babes, time to get ready for school! Let's go get dressed!" Neji put her down on the floor and raced her to her room, and she followed giggling uncontrollably. Tenten smiled as she watched her disappear after her father, feeling once again at ease.

 _What will happen will happen_ , she thought.

One thing was for sure. Whatever that kid managed to do, she would do it well. After all, she was their daughter. She would be able to do anything she could ever dream of.


	33. 68 - Hero

I'm sorry I didn't update yesterday; I hit a wall on this one, because I just couldn't find a topic good enough for this prompt. I settled on this, since it's kind of a pivotal point in this entire loosely connected series.

Enjoy and leave a review!

 **Day Sixty-Eight** – 18 December 2017

 **Prompt** – Hero

 **Summary** – There are no heroes in war.

 **Notes** – I keep referencing how he survived the war, here's my take (next few updates will be on it)

 **Word Count** – 769

* * *

 **Hero**

There is no such thing as a hero in war. No matter how you look at a death or a sacrifice or a movement or assault or withdrawal, there was always someone who was hurt in the end.

This time, it was me.

Sure, perhaps in the future Naruto and Hinata and everyone else, maybe even the whole damn village would consider him a _hero,_ but not me. This was my worst nightmare, and he was fully aware of that. He was condemning me to a life of misery even as he was trying to spare everyone else the same fate.

The sprigs came quickly, too quickly, fast enough that none of the Hyuga, the most renowned clan of the village for their strength, could do anything to stop them. It was a targeted attack; Naruto was the key to defeating the enemy, and without him everything would fall to pieces. If a few lives were lost to protect him and thus end the war, they would have died for a valiant and noble cause.

Of course it had to be him.

My eyes saw what was going to happen, saw how he leaped in front of Hinata and Naruto to shield them with his own body, but my body could not react fast enough to help. I was able to rapidly close the distance between us before the impact but I couldn't stop them. I could only watch in absolute horror as those spikes drove through his body, flinging him to the ground.

I felt the hot flecks of his blood hit my face, and my chest tightened as I watched his body fall, knowing already that there was next to nothing I could do to save him.

I couldn't even scream his name, so he could hear my voice one last time. No, I couldn't even manage that. I was _helpless._

I watched as Naruto caught his body and they exchanged words, too faint for me to hear. I couldn't even force myself to get up and go over there, so utterly shocked I was from what I had just seen. The realization knocked me to my knees and held me there against my will, and I was powerless to stop it.

A voice above was shouting angrily about despair and promises, though with every moment the rush of blood in my ears grew louder and louder until it was the only thing I could hear. I saw his face, his eyes, blank and cold and dead. I watched his skin grow ever paler. I couldn't tear my eyes away even though every fiber of my being wished to. I couldn't bear this being the last I saw of him, yet the image of his corpse was now permanently branded into my mind. That was all I had to remember him by now, it seemed.

Then Naruto and Hinata were standing, fingers entwined, proud and strong and seemingly oblivious to the gravity of the sacrifice Neji had just made. How dare they have their happiness, their closeness and intimacy when mine was so cruelly ripped away? Did he die so that they could flaunt their closeness in the faces of those who had lost what they had gained?

The two were suddenly engulfed in boiling, red chakra, and there were flaming, fiery clones of Naruto sprinting through the allied forces. Whenever he touched someone, they too were swallowed in that chakra. Slowly the entire force began glowing red, flexing limbs and fingers and gearing up for the fight that was to come.

A hand came down on my shoulder and the sensation of hot water being shoved through my veins flooded my body. Hot and thick and bubbling, it was difficult to describe the sensation. However, it was colossally powerful, and I felt like I should shift mountains with the strength it gave me.

As the allies prepared themselves for an assault, I turned my attention to the person I had lost, who lay cold in the grass a few feet away. Indeed, as they leaped to the sky to charge the ten-tails, I walked a few strides to kneel next to him, then to take his flak jacket in my fists.

They could change the fate of the world, I couldn't care less, so overcome I was with my grief. While they distracted the enemy and battled like gods, all I could do was try to save what had been lost.

With this power, I felt as if I could do anything, and maybe I was foolish enough to try.

I had to be. For him.


End file.
